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DP 

48 

F3     [CAN  TRAVELLERS  IN  SPAIN 


THE  SPANISH    INNS    1776-1867 

UC-NRLF 


*B    Mfi    fil? 


BY 


C.  EVANGELINE  .FARNHAM 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfillment  of  the  Requirements  for  the 

Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  in  the  Faculty  of 

Philosophy,  Columbia  University 


N*to  fork 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
1921 


EXCHANGE 


AMERICAN   TRAVELLERS   IN   SPAIN 


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AMERICAN  TRAVELLERS  IN  SPAIN 


THE  SPANISH    INNS    1 776-1867 


BY 

C.  EVANGELINE  FARNHAM 


FA 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfillment  of  thr  Requirements  for  the 

Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  in  the  Faculty  of 

Philosophy,  Columbia  University 


COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
1921 


f 


Copyright,  1921 
By  Columbia  University  Press 

Printed  from  type.    Published  May,  1921 


•     •  • 


K>HA*'^ 


PRESS  OF 

THE  NEW  ERA  PRINTING  COMPANY 

LANCASTER,  PA. 


PREFACE 

The  following  pages  represent  a  part  of  an  extended  study  of 
the  impressions  of  American  travellers  in  Spain.  The  plan  of  the 
whole  work,  the  bibliographical  investigations  for  which  are  prac- 
tically completed  is  as  follows :  Volume  I  covers  the  period  from  the 
date  of  the  first  description  of  travels  in  Spain  by  an  American  up 
to  and  including  the  year  1866,  date  of  the  completion  of  the  prin- 
cipal lines  of  railway;  Volume  II  covers  the  period  from  about  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1867  to  tne  present  day.  The  first  volume,  of 
which  these  pages  form  a  single  chapter  (provisionally  Chapter  V), 
chronicles  impressions  of  both  the  country  and  its  people. 

I  desire  to  express  here  my  thanks  to  the  officials  of  the  Library 
of  Congress,  to  those  of  the  New  York  Public  Library,  of  the 
Columbia  University  Library  and  of  several  other  libraries  and 
historical  societies  for  courtesies  extended  to  me  while  I  was  con- 
ducting my  researches.  I  am  glad  also  of  an  opportunity  to  express 
in  print  my  appreciation  of  the  careful  guidance  of  those  under 
whom  I  have  studied.  To  the  members  of  the  Department  of 
Romance  Languages  of  Columbia  University  in  particular  I  desire 
to  acknowledge  my  gratitude  for  the  training  received  and  for  their 
kindness  and  inspiration ;  especially  to  Professor  Gerig  for  his  criti- 
cal reading  of  this  work  in  manuscript,  for  his  suggestion  of  certain 
improvements,  and  above  all  for  his  constant  encouragement,  in- 
spiration and  kindly  advice  since  my  undergraduate  days;  to  Pro- 
fessor de  Onis,  under  whose  supervision  this  work  has  been  carried 
on,  for  inspiring  in  me  a  love  of  Spanish  literature  and  of  Spain 
and  its  people  and  for  the  suggestion  of  the  subject  here  treated; 
and  lastly  to  Professor  Todd  for  his  painstaking  care  and  helpful 
suggestions  in  connection  with  the  reading  of  the  manuscript  in  its 
various  stages  and  in  the  final  revision  of  the  proofs. 

-^  C.  E.  F. 

Columbia  University,  t^ 

March,  1921.  ' 

4*6423 


AMERICAN  TRAVELLERS  IN  SPAIN 

THE  SPANISH  INNS,  1 777-1867 
I. — Primitive  Construction  of  the  Inns 

THE  American  traveller's  impressions  of  the  inns  were  quite  as 
unfavorable  as  were  his  impressions  of  the  roads  and  con- 
veyances. The  earlier  travellers  tell  us  that  in  the  more  primitive 
houses  there  were  no  windows,  the  only  light  coming  from  the 
open  door  or  the  opening  in  the  roof  above  the  hearth.1  Adams 
writes  from  Bilbao,  January  15,  1780: 

"The  houses,  as  well  as  everywhere  else,  were  without  chim- 
neys, fires  or  windows;  and  we  could  find  none  of  those  comforts 
and  conveniences  to  which  we  all  had  been  accustomed  from  the 
cradle,  nor  any  of  that  sweet  and  quiet  repose  in  sleep,  upon  which 
health  and  happiness  so  much  depend." 

Even  where  there  were  windows,  there  was  in  many  cases  no  glass, 
nothing  but  the  wooden  shutter  to  be  opened  or  closed  at  will. 
Adams  describes  the  two  windows  in  his  room  at  Castellano  as 
"port  holes,  without  any  glass"  with  two  wooden  doors  to  open 
and  shut  before  them.2  In  the  houses  of  the  villages  through  which 
Mrs.  Cushing  passed  on  her  way  from  Inin  to  Tolosa  there  was  no 
glass.  Sometimes  there  was  an  iron  grating,  but  usually  she  found 
only  chinks  cut  in  the  wall  to  admit  light.3  Even  at  the  Fonda  del 
Obispo  in  Toledo  there  was  no  glass  in  the  windows.  When  the 
shutters  were  closed  the  room  was  perfectly  dark  and  when  opened 
thoroughly  chilled.4  While  she  found  that  the  houses  of  the  better 
class  had  balconies,  the  windows  opening  upon  these  did  not  always 

1  John  Adams  and  Mrs.  A.  Adams,  Familiar  letters  of  John  Adams  and  his 
wife,  New  York,  1876,  p.  376. 

2  John  Adams,  The  works  of  John  Adams,  Boston,  1850-56,  vol.  iii,  p.  242. 

3  Caroline  Elizabeth  Cushing,  Letters,  descriptive  of  public  monuments, 
scenery,  and  manners  in  France  and  Spain,  Newburyport,  1832,  vol.  ii,  p.  10; 
cf.  Joseph  Townsend,  A  Journey  through  Spain  in  the  years  1786  and  1787, 
London,  1791,  vol.  i,  p.  92. 

4  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  p.  154. 


2    .".  ::  .:••:.•.—  I4&£fcw  Travellers  in  Spain 

have  glass.5  At  the  village  inn  of  La  Puebla  the  windows  consisted 
of  several  panels  opening  separately,  so  that  one  could  let  in  as  little 
or  as  much  light  and  air  as  desired.  On  a  journey  from  Granada 
to  Barcelona  in  1829,  Irving  makes  the  following  entry  in  his 
journal  at  Lorca  on  the  third  of  August :  "  No  glass  in  these  parts 
of  Spain."6  In  the  miserable  vent  a  of  Esteras  where  the  anon- 
ymous author  of  Scenes  in  Spain  stopped  in  1831  there  was  but  one 
small  window  and  this  was  of  oiled  parchment.7  Cheever  tells  us 
that  the  room  he  occupied  at  one  of  the  inns  between  Colmenar  and 
Granada  had  only  one  grated  window.  This  was  without  glass  but 
had  a  wooden  shutter  to  keep  out  the  damp  air.8  Sometimes  there 
were  small  panes  of  glass  set  in  the  wooden  shutters.  The  sitting- 
room  of  a  venta  where  Bryant  stopped  in  1857  was  so  lighted  but 
the  sleeping  rooms  were  dark.9 

The  discomfort  caused  by  the  lack  of  windows  was  augmented 
in  many  cases  by  the  peculiar  arrangement  of  stable  and  living 
rooms.  Frequently  in  the  ventas,  mules  and  other  animals  were 
kept  in  the  same  room  as  the  guests,  and  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  period  we  are  studying,  the  stable,  even  in  the  cities,  was 
usually  found  under  the  same  roof  as  the  living  rooms.  Arthur 
Lee  was  much  disgusted  during  his  short  visit  to  Spain  in  1777  at 
finding  the  living  rooms  over  the  stables.10  Adams  found  in  Galicia 
a  similar  arrangement  of  the  kitchen  on  the  same  floor  as  the  stable. 

"On  the  same  floor  with  the  kitchen  was  the  stable,  but  this  was 
always  open,  and  the  floor  of  the  stable  was  covered  with  miry 
straw  like  the  kitchen.    I  went  into  the  stable,  and  saw  it  filled  on 

5  Ibid.,  p.  49. 

6  The  Journals  of  Washington  Irving  (from  July,  181 5,  to  July,  1842)  ;  ed. 
by  William  P.  Trent  and  George  Hellman,  Boston,  1919. 

7  Scenes  in  Spain,  New  York,  1837,  p.  220. 

8  Knickerbocker  Magazine,  vol.  xix,  p.  122 ;  cf.  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  p.  232. 
•William  Cullen  Bryant,  Letters  of  a  Traveller,  New  York,  1859,  p.  n6; 

cf.  Alexandre  Dumas,  Impressions  de  Voyage,  Paris,  1854,  vol.  ii,  p.  43.  This 
absence  of  glass  in  the  windows  was  noted  also  by  Gautier.  He  writes  of  a 
village  he  visited  in  1846 :  *  Torquemada  est  remarquable  par  l'absence  complete 
de  vitres."  The  inn  he  tells  us  was  the  only  building  which  had  this  "  luxe 
inoui."    Theophile  Gautier,  Voyage  en  Espagne,  Paris,  1875,  p.  58. 

10  Arthur  Lee,  Journal  (MS.),  Manuscript  Division  L.  C. ;  cf.  Henry  Swin- 
burne, Travels  through  Spain  in  the  years  1775  and  1776,  London,  1779,  p.  117. 


Primitive  Construction  of  the  Inns  3 

both  sides  with  mules  belonging  to  us  and  several  other  travellers, 
who  were  obliged  to  put  up  by  the  rain."11 

At  Villaf ranca  he  writes  in  his  diary : 

"The  houses  are  uniformly  the  same  through  the  whole  country, 
hitherto — common  habitations  for  men  and  beasts ;  the  same  smoky, 
filthy  holes;  not  one  decent  house  have  I  seen  from  Corunna."12 

Jay  found  the  same  arrangement  at  the  inns  on  the  road  from  Cadiz 
to  Madrid  in  1780.  "The  mules  were  generally  lodged  under  the 
same  roof,  and  my  bedroom  has  frequently  been  divided  from  them 
by  only  a  common  partition."13  Monroe  during  his  journey  from 
Irun  to  Madrid  in  1804,  and  Ticknor,  while  travelling  from  Barce- 
lona to  the  capital  in  18 18,  were  impressed  by  this  same  peculiar 
plan  of  living  rooms  and  stable  under  one  roof.  Monroe  writes  of 
the  inn  at  Irun  in  1804:  "  I  entered  the  best  tavern  with  our  mules, 
the  ground  floor  of  which  was  given  up  to  them."  Just  before 
reaching  Madrid  he  enters  in  his  diary : 

"  The  first  floor  in  every  house  was  occupied  by  the  mules,  and  the 
second  by  the  proprietors.  I  am  now  within  28  leagues  of  Madrid 
and  I  have  lodged  every  night  in  the  house  with  the  mules  who  have 
been  the  companions  of  my  journey."14 

Ticknor  in  a  letter  dated  Madrid,  May  23,  1818,  says:  "Since 
I  left  Barcelona  I  have  not  been  in  a  single  inn  where  the  lower 
story  was  not  a  stable."  "  Twice,"  he  adds,  "  I  have  dined  in  the 
very  place  with  the  mules."15  Mackenzie  stopped  for  a  night  at  a 
posada  where  the  stable  under  the  living  rooms  was  lighted  by  holes 
pierced  through  the  ceiling.16  Mrs.  Cushing,  like  Ticknor,  once 
dined  in  the  same  place  as  the  mules.  In  one  of  her  letters  she 
writes  of  a  venta  between  Burgos  and  Madrid : 

11  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  241 ;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  242. 

12  Ibid.,  p.  246. 

13  John  Jay,  Correspondence  and  public  papers,  New  York,  1890,  vol.  i,  p. 
335;  cf.  Swinburn,  p.  80. 

14  James  Monroe,  Diary   (MS.),  Manuscript  Division,  N.  Y.  P.  L. 

15  George  Ticknor,  Life,  Letters  and  Journals,  Boston  and  New  York,  1909, 
vol.  i,  p.  185.    Other  travellers  had  similar  experiences  on  this  route. 

16  Alexander  Slidell  Mackenzie,  A  year  in  Spain,  New  York,  1836,  vol*,  iii, 
P-  l77>  Cf.  ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  59,  60;  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow,  Life,  Boston 
and  New  York,  1893,  vol.  i,  p.  126. 


4  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

"The  apartment,  into  which  we  were  shown  as  our  dining-room, 
was  so  dark,  damp,  and  gloomy,  that  we  insisted  upon  the  table's 
being  set  in  the  front  part  of  the  house,  in  a  large  court,  which 
served  as  a  common  passage  for  man  and  beast,  and  a  portion  of 
which  was  actually  occupied  as  the  stable.  This  was  much  the  most 
comfortable  place  that  the  house  afforded,  and  here  we  sat  down  to 
a  most  miserable  dinner,  which  scarcely  sufficed  to  appease  our 
hunger  for  the  remaining  four  hours  of  the  day,  in  which  we  were 
to  continue  on  the  road.  Just  as  we  were  finishing  the  dessert,  a 
demure,  staid-looking  borrica  marched  up  to  the  table,  and  stood 
close  at  my  side,  waiting  with  all  possible  patience  for  its  expected 
share  of  the  fruit."17 

Even  when  Wallis  was  in  Madrid  in  1849  the  ground  floor  of 
the  largest  tavern  was  given  up  to  the  mules.18  In  the  northwestern 
Pyrenees  three  years  later  Channing  found  pigs,  mules,  and  hens  in 
the  wretched  houses  of  the  post  towns.19  Taylor  describes  the 
venta  at  Gaucin,  where  he  stopped  for  a  night  in  1852,  as  "one 
room — stable,  kitchen,  and  dining-room  all  in  one."20  The  posada 
where  Schroeder  stopped  at  Loja  was  built  on  the  same  plan.21  At 
Quintana  in  1857  Bryant  lodged  at  an  inn  which  he  says  consisted 
like  most  Spanish  inns  of  stables  on  the  first  floor  and  dwelling- 
rooms  on  the  second.22  Pettigrew,  like  Adams,  found  the  kitchen 
was  sometimes  on  the  lower  floor  where  the  mules  were  kept.  He 
writes  of  his  entrance  into  the  posada  at  Alhama  in  1859 :  "  Pushing 
my  way  through  the  kitchen  and  among  the  mules  I  mounted  to  the 
first  story  to  see  the  accommodations."23 

Not  only  American  travellers  but  also  those  of  other  nation- 
alities were  impressed  by  this  arrangement  of  stable  and  living 
rooms.     Gautier  writes  of  a  posada  in  Castilla  la  Vieja : 

17  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  pp.  45,  46.  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  181 ;  Scenes  in  Spain,  pp. 
46,  222,  223.  Other  Americans  and  the  well  known  English  traveller,  Richard 
Ford,  give  similar  accounts. 

18  Severn  Teackle  Wallis,  Spain,  Boston,  1853,  p.  5.  Other  Americans  make 
similar  statements. 

19  Walter  Channing,  A  physician's  vacation,  Boston,  1856,  p.  472. 

20  Bayard  Taylor,  The  lands  of  the  Saracen,  New  York,  1856,  p.  444-  Cf. 
ibid.,  p.  405;  Knick.  Mag.,  vol.  xix,  p.  124;  Gautier,  p.  197. 

21  Francis  Schroeder,  Shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  New  York,  1846,  vol.  ii, 
p.  100, 

22  Bryant  p.  in;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  114. 

28J[ames]  Jfohnston]  Pfettigrew],  Notes  on  Spain  and  the  Spaniards,  in 
the  summer  of  1859,  Charleston,  1861,  p.  249. 


Primitive  Construction  of  the  Inns  5 

"La  posada  ou  Ton  s'arreta  pour  diner  avait  pour  vestibule  une 
ecurie.  Cette  disposition  architectural  se  reflete  invariablement 
dans  toutes  les  posadas  espagnoles,  et  pour  aller  a  sa  chambre  il  f  aut 
passer  derriere  la  croupe  des  mules."24 

II. — Wretched  Conditions  of  certain  Inns 

As  might  well  be  expected,  such  an  arrangement  of  the  interior 
was  not  conducive  to  cleanliness.  Consequently  we  find  that  not  a 
few  of  the  American  travellers  mention  filthy  conditions  encoun- 
tered.1 No  one  was  more  impressed  with  the  filth  in  Castilla  la  Vieja 
than  was  Lee  in  1777:  "From  the  stable  which  is  the  common  re- 
ceptacle of  horses,  asses,  mules,  dogs,  hogs,  beggars,  and  idlers/' 
we  read  in  his  journal,  "you  ascend  to  your  room,  where  you  are 
received  by  all  manner  of  vermin,  and  where  everything  is  as  dirty 
as  if  a  general  and  constant  hydrophobia  possessed  this  detestable 
people."2  His  general  impression  of  Guipuzcoa,  however,  seems 
to  have  been  much  better.  In  the  first  named  province  "pride, 
poverty  and  dirtiness  reign  absolute  "  while  in  the  latter  the  people 
are  "stout,  well  fed  and  clothed."  Adams  found  the  houses  in 
Galicia  and  Leon  quite  as  filthy.  The  first  floor  was  nothing  but 
the  ground  covered  with  straw  trodden  into  mire;  on  the  second 
floor,  which  was  never  swept  or  washed,  smoke,  soot,  dirt  and 
vermin  were  everywhere.  The  Maragato  women  he  found  more 
nasty  than  squaws.3  Like  Lee,  Adams  seems  to  have  been  more 
favorably  impressed  by  Guipuzcoa.  He  found  the  houses  there 
and  in  Vizcaya  larger  and  more  convenient  than  those  in  Galicia, 
Castilla,  or  Leon,  but  the  public  houses  were  much  the  same.  The 
inn  at  Briviesca  was  a  large  one  with  twelve  good  beds,  but  the  house 
was,  like  all  others  he  had  seen,  smoky  and  dirty.  Bryant  finds  at 
this  same  place  in  1857  a  "decent  spacious  inn  full  of  guests." 
The  town  itself,  however,  he  describes  as  dirty  and  badly  paved.4 

24Gautier,  p.  32.  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  67;  Richard  Ford,  Gatherings  from  Spain, 
London,  1846,  p.  172. 

1  Cf.  J.  Fr.  Bourgoing,  Tableau  de  VEspagne  Moderne,  Paris,  1797;  George 
Borrow,  The  Bible  in  Spain,  New  York  and  London,  1896;  [Julia  Clara  (Busk)] 
Byrne,  Cosas  de  Espana,  London  and  New  York,  1866.  Others,  too  numerous 
to  mention  here,  found  similar  conditions. 

2  Lee,  Journal  (MS.). 

3  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  pp.  241,  242,  245-247,  250,  253,  254,  257. 
*  Bryant,  p.  89. 


6  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

So  filthy  was  the  best  tavern  at  Irun  in  1804  that  Monroe  was 
obliged  to  look  for  accommodations  elsewhere. 

"  I  ascended  to  the  second  floor  thro  a  mass  of  filth  on  the  staircase 
into  an  apartment  that  exhaled  a  flavor  which  was  highly  offensive. 
In  the  apartment  were  six  or  eight  young  men  of  different  nations, 
Spaniards,  Portuguese  and  French,  who  had  been  detained  there 
some  time  by  the  cordon  which  was  established  by  the  French  Gov1, 
to  prevent  all  communication  from  Spn.  on  ace1,  of  the  yellow  fever 
wb.  was  at  Cadiz  and  some  other  posts.  I  felt  an  unexpressible 
desire  to  get  out  of  the  house  and  procure  other  lodgings  as  soon  as 
possible." 

As  there  was  no  room  available  at  this  inn  Monroe  gladly  went  to 
another  which  had  been  procured  for  him,  thinking  he  would  fare 
better,  but  this  was  quite  as  bad  as  the  first.  "  They  were  both  in 
the  extreme,"  says  Monroe,  "  and  neither  cod.  be  safd  to  be  worse 
than  the  other."5  A  quarter  of  a  century  later  Mrs.  Cushing  pre- 
sents a  picture  of  an  inn  at  Irun,  the  same  in  construction  but  much 
cleaner. 

"  Ascending  a  stair-case  leading  from  one  side  of  the  stable,  we 
came  to  a  second  floor,  and  were  shown  into  a  room,  which,  although 
wholly  unadorned,  and  destitute  of  any  superfluous  accommoda- 
tions, was  nevertheless  sufficiently  commodious  and  neat  in  appear- 
ance, to  insure  us  against  any  difficulty  on  the  score  of  a  comfortable 
night's  lodging."6 

Monroe  found  great  filth  at  the  other  stopping  places  on  his  way 
to  Madrid.7  Wallis,  whose  impressions  in  1849  are  quite  as  un- 
favorable, writes  of  the  poor  inns  he  encountered  on  the  road  from 
Bayonne  to  Madrid : 

"  As  to  the  '  entertainment  for  man '  with  which  we  were  favored, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Postas  Peninsulares  in  whose  diligence  I 
travelled,  it  is  a  matter  of  duty  to  those  who  may  follow  me  to  say, 
that  it  was  as  detestable  as  can  be  imagined.  The  humblest  ven- 
torrillo  on  the  Andalusian  hills,  where  I  partook  of  game  and  salad  in 
former  days,  while  the  fleas  took  reprisals  from  me,  was  a  palace 

5  Monroe,  Diary  (MS.). 

6  Vol.  ii,  p.  4;  cf.  Bryant,  p.  47. 

7  Monroe,  Diary  (MS.). 


Wretched  Conditions  of  Certain  Inns  7 

for  a  Sybarite,  in  comparison  with  some  of  the  par  adores  into  which 
we  were  now  compelled  to  burrow."8 

Bryant  on  the  contrary  finds  great  cleanliness  at  these  inns  about 
eight  years  later.  A  friend  of  his  had  told  him  at  San  Sebastian 
that  he  would  not  find  luxury  at  the  inns  on  his  journey  to  Madrid 
but  that  he  would  find  great  cleanliness.  At  Vegara  where  he  finds 
the  rooms  "  as  clean  and  bright  as  a  Dutch  parlor/'  Bryant  writes : 
"  We  have  been  thus  far  agreeably  disappointed  in  seeing  the 
promise  of  cleanliness  so  well  fulfilled."9 

At  the  capital  Monroe  stopped  at  the  best  inn,  La  Cruz  de 
Malta,  but  even  this  was  not  as  clean  as  Parisian  inns  although  it 
was  better  than  anything  he  had  found  since  leaving  France.10 
Some  months  later  George  Erving,  United  States  minister  to  Spain 
from  1805  to  1 81 9,  stopped  at  the  same  inn.  After  a  fruitless 
search  for  clean,  respectable  furnished  lodgings,  he  decided  to  rent 
a  house,  and  himself  furnish  the  rooms  needed.  In  a  letter  to 
Monroe  dated  Madrid,  November  18,  1805,  he  says: 

"  On  account  of  the  temporary  nature  of  my  employment  I  should 
have  taken  furnished  lodgings  if  any  which  were  respectable  or 
were  clean  could  have  been  found ;  but  after  staying  a  fortnight  at 
the  Cross  of  Malta  concluded  that  the  best  mode  was  to  take  a 
house  with  bare  walls,  and  furnish  such  apartments  in  it  as  are 
necessary."11 

8Wallis,  Spain,  p.  3.  Conditions  encountered  by  numerous  other  travellers 
seem  to  have  been  quite  as  wretched. 

9  Bryant,  p.  73. 

10  Monroe,  Diary  (MS.). — Townsend,  who  travelled  in  Spain  in  1786  and 
1787,  stopped  in  Madrid  at  a  hotel  by  the  same  name.  Townsend,  vol.  i,  p.  347- 
— This  as  well  as  the  other  inns  at  the  capital  he  found  good.    Ibid.,  p.  290. 

11  James  Monroe,  Letters  (MS.),  Manuscript  Division,  N.  Y.  P.  L. — The  inns 
of  Madrid  impressed  Laborde  as  being  very  poor,  but  La  Cms  de  Malta  was  not 
as  bad  as  the  others  in  his  opinion :  "  La  Croix  de  Malte  est  la  moins  mauvaise. 
On  y  trouve  plusieurs  autres  auberges,  dont  les  prix  son!  plus  modiques;  mais 
elles  sont  rarement  decentes,  et  on  y  est  mal  nourri  et  loge."  Alexandre  de 
Laborde,  Itineraire  descriptif  de  I'Espagne,  Paris,  1808,  vol.  iii,  p.  149- — Inglis 
found  this  inn  very  bad  in  1830:  "The  dirtiness  and  want  of  comfort  in  the 
Cruz  de  Malta  would  have  driven  me  into  private  lodgings,  even  if  the  charges 
in  the  hotel  had  been  supportable."  Henry  D.  Inglis,  Spain  in  1830,  London, 
1831,  vol.  i,  p.  85. — No  traveller,  however,  speaks  as  critically  of  the  inns  at 
Madrid  as  does  the  Spanish  writer,  Larra.  In  La  Fonda  Nueva  he  says: 
"iQuiere  usted  que  le  diga  yo  lo  que  nos  daran  en  cualquier  fonda  a  donde 


8  'American  Travellers  in  Spain 

Ticknor  writes  from  Madrid  June  3,  1818: 

"  In  the  first  place  I  am  settled  in  lodgings  procured  for  me  by  Mr. 
Erving,  with  people  he  knows  to  be  honest,  and  whom  I  find  uncom- 
monly neat;  which,  you  will  observe,  are  the  two  rarest  virtues  in 
Spain."12 

Vail  in  1840  finds  that  in  respect  to  accommodations  one  is  but  a 
shade  better  off  at  the  capital  than  on  the  road. 

"  It  is  singular  that  in  a  metropolis  like  this,  with  a  population  of 
two  hundred  and  twenty  or  thirty  thousand,  there  are  but  two  hotels, 
and  they  are  kept  by  Frenchmen.  In  each  there  are  accommoda- 
tions but  for  half  a  dozen  persons  and  those  of  such  a  description 
as  would  do  no  credit  to  our  smallest  country  towns."13 

In  speaking  of  the  houses  he  says  it  is  difficult  to  keep  them  clean 
and  orderly  as  the  climate  is  favorable  to  the  propagation  of  vermin. 
Wallis  complains  of  poor  accommodations  in  the  capital  nine  years 
later.  "  He  will  be  a  wise  man  who  reads  the  principle  backwards, 
and  remembers  that  the  Fonda  de  las  Postas  Peninsulares  being  the 
largest  tavern  in  Madrid,  is  of  necessity  the  worst."14  The  Fonda 
de  las  Postas  Peninsulares  which  Wallis  finds  very  bad  is  mentioned 
by  Bryant  in  1857.  The  latter  says  the  hotels  of  Madrid  have  the 
reputation  which  they  deserve  of  being  the  worst  to  be  found  in 
any  of  the  large  capitals.15 

Ticknor's  picture  of  the  inns  between  Barcelona  and  Madrid  is 
a  dark  one,  even  worse  than  that  of  Laborde.  The  filth,  especially, 
made  a  very  disagreeable  impression  on  him.  This  was  so  great 
that  he  generally  preferred  staying  in  the  carriage  when  they 

vayamos?  Mire  usted,  nos  daran  en  primer  lugar  un  mantel  y  servilletas 
puercos,  vasos  puercos,  platos  puercos  y  mozos  puercos  sacaran  las  cucharas  del 
bolsillo  donde  estan  con  las  puntas  de  los  cigarros."  Mariano  Jose  de  Larra, 
Obras  Completas,  Barcelona,  1886,  p.  285.  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  450;  Ramon  de  Mesonero 
Romanos,  Panorama  Matritense,  Madrid,  1881,  pp.  89,  92. 

12  Ticknor,  Life,  vol.  i,  p.  187. 

18  The  Van  Buren  papers  (MS.),  Manuscript  Division,  L.  C,  vol.  41. 

14  Spain,  p.  4, 

15  Bryant,  p.  123.  Cf.  Wallis,  Spain,  p.  5;  Byrne,  vol.  i,  pp.  169-171,  182; 
ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  295. — According  to  Mrs.  Le  Vert  it  was  possible  to  find  an  excel- 
lent casa  de  huespedes  when  she  was  in  Madrid  in  1855.  Octavia  Le  Vert, 
Souvenirs  of  travel,  New  York,  1859,  vol.  ii,  p.  15. 


Wretched  Conditions  of  Certain  Inns  9 

stopped  rather  than  go  into  the  squalid  houses.16  His  description  of 
the  wretchedness  or  these  inns  recall  those  of  Swinburne  and  of 
Bourgoing.17  An  American  who  travelled  here  in  183 1  found  the 
best  inn  at  Zaragoza  extremely  filthy.18  Pettigrew  in  1859  was 
pleasantly  impressed  with  the  hotel  in  this  same  city.19  Until  about 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  most  American  travellers 
describe  the  inns  at  Barcelona  as  very  dirty.20  Later  travellers 
found  them  clean  although  still  uncomfortable  in  some  respects.21 
The  American  traveller's  impressions  of  the  inns  of  the  Medi- 
terranean provinces  of  Spain  are  on  the  whole  much  more  favorable 
than  those  of  Swinburne.22  It  is  true  that  Cartagena  is  described 
by  Americans  as  being  very  filthy.23  Moreover,  Vassar  found  the 
rooms  of  the  inns  between  Murcia  and  the  capital  generally  dirty.24 
Irving  writes  in  his  journal  that  the  Fonda  de  la  Paz  at  Valencia 
is  filthy.     However,  the  Valencia  pictured  by  most  Americans,  is 

16  George  Ticknor's  Travels  in  Spain,  University  of  Toronto  Studies  No.  2, 
Toronto,  1913,  pp.  24,  25.  Cf.  Townsend,  vol.  i,  pp.  92,  222,  225,  229;  Laborde, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  9,  12,  48. 

17  Swinburne  has  left  a  sketch  of  the  Venta  del  Platero  in  Catalonia,  a  venta 
which  he  describes  as  "a  hovel  that  beggars  all  description."  "We  were 
lodged,"  he  says,  "  in  part  of  a  ground  floor,  the  remainder  of  which  was  occu- 
pied by  the  mules  and  pigs."  Swinburne,  p.  80.— Bourgoing' s  impressions  of  the 
inns  on  this  route  were  no  better  than  those  of  his  English  predecessor.  The 
Venta  de  Santa  Lucia  beyond  Villafranca  he  describes  as  "  la  plus  degoutante 
des  hotelleries  espagnoles."    Bourgoing  vol.  i,  p.  57. 

18  Scenes  in  Spain,  p.  234. 

19  Pettigrew,  p.  73. 

20  Cf.  Ticknor,  Travels,  p.  12 ;  John  Adams  Dix,  A  winter  in  Madeira;  and  a 
summer  in  Spain  and  Florence,  New  York,  1853,  p.  318;  E.  C.  Wines,  Two  years 
and  a  half  in  the  navy,  Philadelphia,  1832,  vol.  i,  p.  225 ;  Severn  Teackle  Wallis, 
Glimpses  of  Spain,  New  York,  1849,  P-  46. 

21  Cf.  John  Milton  Mackie,  Cosas  de  Espana,  New  York,  1855,  p.  141 ;  Le 
Vert,  vol.  ii,  pp.  48,  57. 

22  Most  of  the  cities  and  towns  of  the  Mediterranean  provinces  were  as 
pictured  by  Swinburne  in  1775  and  1776  extremely  filthy.  Cf.  Swinburne,  pp.  80, 
99,  104,  190. 

23  Manuel  Mordecai  Noah,  Travels  in  England,  France,  Spain,  and  the  Bar- 
bary  states,  in  1813-15,  New  York,  1819,  p.  170;  Francis  B.  Crowninshield,  The 
story  of  George  Crowninshield 's  yacht,  Cleopatra's  barge,  on  a  voyage  of 
pleasure  to  the  Western  Islands  and  the  Mediterranean,  1816-1817,  comp.  from 
journals,  letters,  and  log-book,  Boston,  1913,  p.  108;  John  Guy  Vassar,  Twenty 
years  around  the  world,  New  York,  1861,  p.  325. 

24  Vassar,  p.  328;  cf.  Bryant,  p.  161. 


io  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

much  more  attractive  than  the  Valencia  described  by  Swinburne 
Horner  found  the  streets  well  paved  with  pebbles  and  in  a  tolerable 
state  of  cleanliness.26  Dix  in  1843  thought  Valencia  the  most  beau- 
tiful of  the  towns  he  had  seen  in  Spain.27  Warren  writes  enthusi- 
astically of  the  view  of  this  city  in  1849 :  "  The  first  view  of  Valencia 
burst  upon  me  like  the  wondrous  city  of  a  dream/'28  Here  he 
found  excellent  accommodations  in  the  Fonda  del  Cid.  Irving  in 
1828  was  much  disgusted  with  the  squalid  inn  at  Granada  as  he  was 
with  the  Spanish  posadas  in  general.  In  a  letter  dated  Granada 
March  15,  1828,  he  writes  to  Mademoiselle  Bollviller: 

"  One  is  exhausted  by  incessant  fatigue  and  put  out  of  all  tune  by 
the  squalid  miseries  of  the  Spanish  posadas.  I  am  now  so  sur- 
rounded by  dirt  and  villainy  of  all  kinds  that  I  am  almost  ashamed 
to  dispatch  a  letter  to  your  pure  hands  from  so  scoundrel  a  place."29 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  century  impressions  of  the  accommoda- 
tions here  were  more  favorable.  In  1857  Bryant  describes  the 
Fonda  de  Minerva  as  "  a  tolerable  hostel."30 

Malaga,  which  left  so  unpleasant  an  impression  on  the  English 
traveller  Townsend  in  1786  and  1787,  is  spoken  of  in  favorable 
terms  by  most  American  travellers.31  Noah,  during  his  sojourn  in 
the  city,  stopped  at  a  large,  comfortable  hotel  which  was  the  best  he 
had  yet  seen  in  Spain.32  Baker  writes  in  18 19  that  Malaga  has 
good  accommodations  for  foreigners.  He  adds  that  there  are 
several  very  decent  lodging  houses,  and  some  inns,  one  of  which  is 
not  excelled  for  capacity  in  room  and  entertainment  in  any  other 

25  Swinburne  (p.  99)  describes  the  streets  as  knee  deep  in  mud  and  the 
houses  as  filthy. 

26  Gustavus  R.  Horner,  Medical  and  topographical  observations  upon  the 
Mediterranean,  Philadelphia,  1839,  p.  47. 

27  Dix,  pp.  314,  315. 

28  John  Esaias  Warren,  Vagamundo,  New  York,  1852,  p.  281. 

29  Washington  Irving,  Life  and  Letters,  New  York,  1892,  vol.  ii,  p.  88;  cf. 
Scenes  in  Spain,  p.  49. 

30  Bryant,  p.  203. 

31 "  Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  in  the  city  few  traces  of  industry  are  seen, 
whilst  filth  and  nastiness,  immorality  and  vice,  wretchedness  and  poverty,  the 
inevitable  consequences  of  indistinguishing  benevolence,  prevail."  Townsend, 
vol.  iii,  p.  17. 

32  Noah,  p.  164. 


Wretched  Conditions  of  Certain  Inns  n 

seaport  town  of  Spain.33  Woodruff's  impressions  in  1828  are  quite 
different.  He  finds  the  streets  badly  paved  and  dirty,  in  fact  the 
whole  city  in  a  dilapidated  condition  generally.34  Later  travellers 
speak  favorably  of  accommodations  in  Malaga.  In  the  fifties  a 
very  good  hotel  called  the  Fonda  de  la  Alameda  is  frequently  men- 
tioned. As  early  as  1853  it  had  what  was  then  a  luxury  in  Spain, 
good  baths.  In  1857  it  was  called  one  of  the  best  hotels  in  Spain.35 
According  to  American  travellers  the  city  which  impressed  one 
by  its  cleanliness  was  Cadiz.  Judging  from  their  descriptions,  it 
was,  in  this  respect,  the  city  par  excellence  of  Spain.  These  impres- 
sions are  just  the  opposite  of  Swinburne's  picture  of  Cadiz  in  1776.38 
Noah  was  struck  with  the  cleanliness  of  the  city  in  1813.  Mrs. 
Allen  in  1864  had  never  seen  a  cleaner  city.  Mrs.  Claghorn,  who 
found  little  to  please  her  in  Spain,  describes  Cadiz  as  "a  bright 
clean  city,"  in  1866.  While  not  as  enthusiastic  in  speaking  of  the 
accomodations  afforded  travellers  as  in  speaking  of  the  cleanliness 
of  the  city  in  general,  the  American  traveller  seems  to  have  carried 
away  with  him  a  favorable  impression  of  the  few  hotels  mentioned. 
Noah  found  the  hotel  of  the  Quatro  Naciones  tolerable  but  he  says 
there  was  not  a  good  hotel  in  the  place  although  it  was  then  a  city 
of  importance.  The  American  Consul  told  Noah  that  because  of 
the  lack  of  suitable  accommodations  the  supercargoes  of  vessels 
generally  lodged  in  the  houses  of  the  consignees  and  that  at  one 
time  he  had  forty  in  his  house.37    In  the  forties  there  was  a  great 

33  John  Martin  Baker,  A  view  of  the  commerce  of  the  Mediterranean, 
Washington,  1819,  p.  37. 

34  Samuel  Woodruff,  Journal  of  a  tour  to  Malta,  Greece,  Asia  Minor, 
Carthage,  Algiers,  Port  Mahon,  and  Spain,  in  1828,  Hartford,  1831,  pp.  231,  235; 
cf.  Horner,  p.  72. 

35  Bryant,  p.  193.  Cf.  Traces  of  the  Roman  and  Moor,  by  "a  bachelor," 
New  York,  1853,  p.  37 1 ;  Taylor,  p.  434. 

36  At  the  time  of  Swinburne's  visit,  Cadiz  (p.  216)  was  even  worse  than 
Valencia.  He  found  the  streets  badly  paved,  extremely  filthy  and  filled  with 
bad  odors.  So  overrun  were  they  with  swarms  of  rats  that  the  late  pedes- 
trian was  exceedingly  troubled.  Townsend  corroborates  these  statements  about 
ten  years  later  and  describes  the  improvements  which  took  place  after  Count 
O'Reilly  became  governor.  "  For  their  pavements,"  he  says,  "  for  the  cleanliness 
of  their  streets,  for  a  well  regulated  police,  for  some  of  the  best  edifices,  and 
for  many  wise  institutions  they  have  been  indebted  to  their  late  governor, 
Count  O'Reilly.     Townsend,  vol.  ii,  p.  346. 

"Noah,  p.  65. 


12  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

improvement  in  the  hotels  of  Cadiz.  Dix  in  1843  found  very  good 
lodgings,  and  Warren  in  1849  considered  the  Fonda  de  Europa  the 
best  in  the  country.38  While  Mills  in  1865  does  not  speak  in  such 
high  praises  as  the  latter,  he  too,  found  it  clean.39 

From  the  forties  on,  the  American  traveller's  impressions  of  the 
accommodations  in  the  larger  towns  and  cities  seem  to  be  more 
favorable.  The  inns  of  the  smaller  towns  and  the  country  ventas, 
however,  he  found  generally  filthy  up  to  the  end  of  the  period  we 
are  studying.40  Even  among  these  he  occasionally  found  one  that 
was  clean.  The  landlady  of  the  posada  at  Alcala  la  Real  reminded 
Vassar  in  1842  of  a  Dutch  housewife  for  cleanliness.41  Few  were 
the  inns  like  the  little  posada  at  La  Carolina  which  Pettigrew  visited 
in  1859.  Its  well  swept  tiled  floor  he  considered  worthy  of  Hol- 
land.42 Some  of  the  inns  of  the  Basque  provinces,  also,  he  found 
neat.43  "Mrs.  Le  Vert  seems  to  have  found  most  of  the  posadas  and 
other  places  where  she  stopped  in  1855  fairly  neat.44  Nearly  ten 
years  later,  Mrs.  Allen  on  the  contrary,  describes  the  inns  in  general 
as  very  dirty.  Of  those  on  the  road  from  Malaga  to  Granada  she 
writes :  "  The  inns  or  posadas  by  the  way  are  so  filthy  that  no  ladies 
can  enter  them."45  On  her  arrival  at  Bayonne,  she  expresses  her 
satisfaction  at  finding  herself  again  in  a  French  hotel  "where 
cleanliness,  a  rare  luxury  in  Spain,  was  the  rule."46 

38  Warren,  pp.  181,  182;  cf.  Taylor,  p.  392. 

39L[ewis]  E[ste]  Mills,  Glimpses  of  southern  France  and  Spain,  Cincin- 
nati, 1867,  p.  99. 

40  Ford  (p.  167)  does  not  think  it  advisable  for  English  ladies  to  stop  at 
the  inns  off  the  main  roads. 

41  P.  142. — This  recalls  Gautier's  impressions  of  his  room  in  the  posada  of 
the  village  of  Astizarraga  in  1840:  "  Quand  on  nous  mena  dans  nos  chambres, 
nous  fumes  eblouis  de  la  blancheur  des  rideaux  du  lit  et  des  fenetres,  de  la 
proprete  hollandaise  des  planchers,  et  du  soin  parfait  de  tous  les  details."  P. 
23;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  183. 

42  P.  144.  Cf.  Ticknor,  Life,  vol.  i,  p.  223 ;  Longfellow,  Outre-mer,  Boston, 
1846,  p.  285. 

43  P.  363. — There  even  Swinburne  found  the  first  one  he  stopped  at  ex- 
tremely clean.    P.  425. 

44  Le  Vert,  vol.  i,  p.  320;  vol.  ii,  pp.  8,  11,  15. 

45  Harriet  Trowbridge  Allen,  Travels  in  Europe  and  the  East,  New  Haven, 

1879,  P-  483. 

46  Ibid.,  p.  504;  cf.  Byrne,  vol.  ii,  p.  252. 


Wretched  Conditions  of  Certain  Inns  13 

In  Estremadura  where  the  roads  were  poor  and  where  there 
was  less  travelling,  the  accommodations  impressed  the  traveller  as 
being  inferior.47  Stevens  in  1866  describes  the  stage  inn  at  Merida 
as  exactly  like  those  pictured  in  Don  Quijote.48  Galicia  and  the 
Asturias,  likewise  little  visited  by  foreigners,  left  a  similar  impres- 
sion on  the  traveller.49 

In  those  primitive  inns  where  the  living  rooms  were  in  such 
close  proximity  to  the  stable,  there  were  swarms  of  vermin  which 
prevented  many  a  weary  traveller  from  resting  during  the  few  hours 
halt  of  the  diligence.  Arthur  Lee  found  the  inns  of  Castilla  la 
Vieja  teeming  with  vermin  in  1777.50  Jay  on  his  journey  from 
Madrid  to  Irun  in  1782  did  not  escape  the  fleas  and  bugs.51  Bryant 
had  an  uncomfortable  night  at  Aranda  in  1857  because  of  the  fleas. 

"  We  had  an  uncomfortable  time  that  night  with  the  fleas,  which,  I 
suppose,  swarmed  up  from  the  stable  below ;  and  we  were  not  sorry 
to  leave  our  beds  and  our  dirty  inn  with  early  light."52 

Adams  found  fleas  and  lice  universal  in  the  houses  of  Galicia  in 
I779-53  At  Astorga,  on  his  way  to  France,  he  writes:  "Found 
clean  beds  and  no  fleas  for  the  first  time  in  Spain/'54 

According  to  Ticknor  the  inns  on  the  road  through  Aragon 
from  Barcelona  to  Madrid  were  quite  as  bad  as  those  described  by 
Adams  in  Galicia.  He  states  in  a  letter  written  at  Madrid,  May 
23,  1818:  "  Since  I  left  Barcelona  I  have  not  been  in  a  single  inn 
where  the  lower  story  was  not  a  stable,  and  of  course  the  upper  one 

47  Joseph  Warren  Revere,  Keel  and  saddle,  Boston,  1872,  p.  56 ;  cf.  Laborde, 
vol.  i,  p.  37& 

48  [Henry  S.  Stevens],  From  Cleveland,  Ohio,  to  Brazil,  and  from  South 
America  to  Europe.  Letters  to  Cleveland  Herald,  by  H.  S.  S.  [Cleveland  ? 
1866?],  p.  36;  cf.  Larra,  p.  450. 

49  At  Pontevedra  Borrow  found  "  more  than  the  usual  amount  of  Galician 
filth  and  misery."    Vol.  i,  p.  396- 

50 Lee  says  that  no  attention  is  shown  the  travellers  at  the  inns  "but  by 
the  fleas,  and  other  vermin  who  pay  their  compliments  in  troops."     Lee,  Journal. 
61  Jay,  Correspondence,  vol.  i,  p.  309;  cf.  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  ii,  p.  35. 
82  Bryant,  p.  114. 
63  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  244. 
84  Ibid.,  p.  247;  cf.  Borrow,  vol.  i,  p.  320. 


14  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

as  full  of  fleas  as  if  it  were  under  an  Egyptian  curse."55  Pettigrew 
speaks  of  the  vermin  at  the  inns  of  Aragon  in  1857.  His  hostess 
at  Venasque  arranged  for  her  son  to  accompany  him  as  far  as  Bar- 
bastro.  "  She,  herself,"  he  says,  "  followed  with  the  assurance  that 
her  son  was  a  most  excellent  individual  eminently  a  mozo  de  con- 
fianza,  and  by  way  of  farther  recommendation,  he  could  lodge  me 
at  private  houses  where  there  were  neither  fleas,  nor  bugs,  ni  pulgas, 
ni  chinches  (fond  delusion!)"56 

In  Andalucia  the  traveller  was  particularly  troubled  with  vermin 
at  the  inns.57  Jay  found  the  posadas  between  Cadiz  and  Madrid  in 
1780  more  tolerable  than  he  had  expected  but  the  rooms  were 
swarming  with  fleas  and  bugs.  Describing  a  venta  at  which  he 
stopped  between  Granada  and  Cordoba  in  1842  Vassar  says:  "We 
were  almost  devoured  by  fleas."58  At  one  time  it  was  apparently 
so  unusual  to  find  sleeping  quarters  free  from  vermin  that  when 
such  were  found,  travellers  seemed  to  consider  the  fact  worthy  of 
mention.  Warren  was  impressed  with  the  fact  that  hotel  Vista 
Alegre,  at  Puerto  de  Santa  Maria  was  free  from  pulgas. 

"Here  the  traveller  will  find  a  comfortable,  though  unpretending 
hotel,  the  'Vista  Alegre,'  where  he  will  be  able  to  secure  a  well 
cooked  repast,  and  if  he  needs  it,  likewise  a  decent  bed,  unhaunted 
by  fleas,  or  gallinippers  of  any  kind !  Such  quarters  are  deserving 
of  notice,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  their  extreme  rarity,  as 
Spanish  Fondas  are,  as  a  universal  rule,  the  worst  provided,  and 
most  uncomfortable  in  the  world."59 

Thus  March  states  that  at  the  Fonda  Vista  Alegre,  Puerto  de  Santa 

55  Ticknor,  Life,  vol.  i,  p.  185.  Cf.  Scenes  in  Spain,  passim;  The  Van  Buren 
papers,  vol.  41,  Vail  to  Van  Buren,  Madrid,  Dec.  10,  1840;  Pettigrew,  pp.  64, 
299.    Many  similar  cases  are  mentioned  by  other  travellers. 

56  Pettigrew,  p.  56 ;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  67. 

57  Jay,  Correspondence,  vol.  i,  p.  335.  Cf.  Letters  of  Washington  Irving  to 
Henry  Brevoort,  New  York,  1915,  vol.  ii,  p.  223;  Traces  of  the  Roman  and 
Moor,  p.  410.    Others  report  similar  conditions. 

58  Vassar,  p.  141 ;  cf.  ibid.,  pp.  142,  329. — Gautier  to  the  contrary  writes  of 
the  inn  at  Ocafia :  "  Les  insectes  dont  Ton  nous  avait  fait  de  si  f ourmillantes 
descriptions  ne  se  produisaient  pas  encore,  et  notre  sommeil  ne  fut  trouble  par 
aucun  cauchemar  a  mille  pattes."    Gautier,  p.  183. 

59  Warren,  pp.  195,  106. 


Heating  Facilities  15 

Maria,  and  the  Posada  de  la  Paz,  Gaucin,  there  were  no  pulgas  in 

1853.60 

In  the  capital  itself  the  traveller  was  not  free  from  this  annoy- 
ance. Vail  writes  in  1840  that  the  houses  of  Madrid  are  so  con- 
structed that  it  is  difficult  to  keep  them  clean  and  orderly,  especially 
as  the  climate  is  favorable  to  the  propagation  of  vermin.01  Wallis 
in  1849  finds  the  principal  inn  of  the  city  constructed  on  the  old 
plan  so  that  the  odor,  the  fleas  and  the  horse  flies  from  the  lower 
floor  circulate  in  the  rooms  above.62 

Most  of  the  travellers  seem  to  have  been  of  the  opinion  of 
March,  who  said :  "  Doubtless  the  two  most  vexatious  institutions 
in  Spain  are  the  beggars  and  the  pulgas. "*z 

III. — Heating  Facilities 

The  American  who  travelled  in  Spain  during  cold  weather  was, 
moreover,  impressed  by  the  lack  of  proper  heating  facilities  at  the 
inns.  Adams  and  his  party  took  violent  colds  during  their  travels 
in  Spain  because  of  the  lack  of  heat  in  the  houses  on  the  road.  He 
writes  from  Bilbao  January  16,  1780:  "We  arrived  here  last  night, 
all  alive  but  all  very  near  sick  with  violent  colds  taken  on  the  road 
for  want  of  comfortable  accommodations.1  We  read  in  his  diary 
under  the  entry  of  January  the  sixth : 

"The  weather  is  very  cold;  the  frosts  hard,  and  no  fire  when  we 
stop,  but  a  few  coals  or  a  flash  of  brush  in  the  kitchen,  full  of  smoke 
and  dirty  and  covered  with  a  dozen  pots  and  kettles  and  surrounded 
by  twenty  people  looking  like  chimney-sweepers.,,2 

These  houses,  he  tells  us,  had  no  chimneys,  only  holes  in  the  roof  to 
let  out  the  smoke.     Speaking  of  his  journey  as  far  as  Bilbao,  he 

60  Charles  Wainwright  March,  Sketches  and  adventures  in  Madeira,  Por- 
tugal, and  the  Andalusias  of  Spain,  pp.  157,  305. 

61  The  Van  Buren  papers,  vol  xli,  Madrid,  Dec.  10,  1840;  cf.  Mesonero 
Romanos,  Panorama  Matritense,  p.  92. 

62  Wallis,  Glimpses  of  Spain,  p.  5.  Cf.  Los  Espanoles  pintados  par  si 
tnismos,  Madrid,  1843,  vol.  iii,  pp.  160,  165,  235-238;  Panorama  Matritense,  p. 
108;  Byrne,  vol.  ii,  p.  319. 

63  P.  431 ;  cf.  Larra,  p.  165. 

1  Familiar  letters,  p.  373. 

2  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  250. 


1 6  'American  Travellers  in  Spain 

says :  "  Through  the  whole  of  the  journey  the  taverns  were  incon- 
venient to  us,  because  there  are  no  chimneys  in  their  houses,  and  we 
had  cold  weather/'3  The  kitchen  fire  of  one  of  these  chimneyless 
inns  at  which  he  was  obliged  to  stop  is  described  as  follows : 

"In  the  middle  of  the  kitchen  was  a  mound,  a  little  raised  with 
earth  and  stone  upon  which  was  a  fire,  with  pots,  kettles,  skillets, 
etc.,  of  the  fashion  of  the  country,  about  it.  There  was  no  chimney. 
The  smoke  ascended,  and  found  no  other  passage  than  through  two 
holes  drilled  through  the  tiles  of  the  roof,  not  perpendicularly  over 
the  fire,  but  at  angles  of  about  forty-five  degrees.  On  one  side  was 
a  flue  oven,  very  large,  black,  smoky,  and  sooty."4 

Ticknor  observes  in  1818  that  the  inns  between  Barcelona  and 
Madrid  had  no  fireplace  other  than  a  hearth  in  the  centre  of  the 
building  which  put  out  the  eyes  of  the  occupants  with  smoke.  Mrs. 
Cushing  in  1829  remarked  that  the  smoke  issued  in  clouds  from 
small  openings  cut  in  the  roof  for  that  purpose,  from  chinks  in  the 
walls,  and  from  the  open  door.5 

Longfellow  describes  a  hearth  which  he  saw  in  a  room  about 
ten  feet  square  with  walls  sloping  upward  like  a  pyramid  to  an 
opening  where  the  smoke  escaped. 

"Quite  round  this  little  room  ran  a  row  of  benches,  upon  which 
sat  one  or  two  grave  personages  smoking  paper  cigars.  Upon  the 
hearth  blazed  a  handful  of  fagots,  whose  bright  flame  danced 
merrily  among  a  motley  congregation  of  pots  and  kettles,  and  a 
long  wreath  of  smoke  wound  lazily  up  through  the  huge  tunnel 
of  the  roof  above.  The  walls  were  black  with  soot,  and  orna- 
mented with  sundry  legs  of  bacon  and  festoons  of  sausages ;  and  as 
there  were  no  windows  in  this  dingy  abode,  the  only  light  which 
cheered  the  darkness  within  came  flickering  from  the  fire  upon  the 
hearth,  and  the  smoky  sunbeams  that  peeped  down  the  long-necked 
chimney."6 

3  Familiar  letters,  p.  373.  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  376;  The  revolutionary  diplomatic 
correspondence  of  the  United  States,  Washington,  1889,  p.  458. 

4  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  241.  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  242,  244-246,  250,  253,  255; 
Swinburne,  p.  71. 

5  P.  10.  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  3,  4,  149;  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  no;  Irving, 
Journals,  vol.  iii,  p.  4. — Gautier  was  impressed  with  this  primitive  construction 
in  1840  at  the  inn  of  Torrequemada.  Although  it  had  the  unheard  of  luxury 
of  panes  of  glass  in  the  windows,  it  had  a  kitchen  with  a  hole  in  the  ceiling — 
"  n'en  a  pas  moins  une  cuisine  avec  un  trou  dans  le  plafond."    P.  58. 

6  Outre-mer,  pp.  174,  175;  cf.  Irving,  Journals,  vol.  iii,  pp.  5,  65.  Several 
others  paint  similar  pictures. 


Heating  Facilities  17 

Mackenzie  was  impressed  with  a  similar  hearth  which  took  up  the 
whole  corner  of  the  kitchen  at  the  Vitoria  inn  where  he  stopped 
in  1834: 

"  In  one  corner  of  the  room,  which  was  of  great  extent,  was  a  large 
chimney,  in  the  middle  of  which  blazed  a  fire  consisting  of  a  mass 
of  live  embers,  fed  by  large  logs,  the  ends  being  thrust  together  like 
the  spokes  of  a  wheel,  and  pushed  forward  from  time  to  time,  as 
they  consumed  away,  while  on  either  side  within  the  spacious  area 
of  the  chimney  itself  were  capacious  wooden  benches  with  backs, 
into  one  of  which  I  hastened  to  throw  myself,  having  for  my  com- 
panion a  retired  old  colonel,  who  sat  quietly  smoking  in  the  post  of 
honor  in  the  corner  and  who  presently  engaged  me  in  agreeable 
conversation."7 

The  absence  of  fireplaces  in  the  sleeping  rooms  is  frequently 
noted  by  American  travellers.  Mackenzie  says  that  Madrid  in 
1826  was  so  seldom  visited  by  foreigners  that  it  was  ill  provided 
for  their  accommodation.  His  room  at  the  Fonda  de  Malta,  the 
best  hotel  in  the  capital,  had  no  fireplace.  His  window  never  got 
the  sun  and  it  was  so  cold  that  there  had  already  been  ice.  Mrs. 
Cushing  observed  in  1829  that  the  Madrilenos  did  not  know  how 
to  guard  against  the  cold  and  that  there  were  few  fireplaces  in  the 
city.  In  fact  she  found  the  fireplace  hardly  known  in  all  Spain.8 
Rear  Admiral  Charles  Steedman  of  the  United  States  Navy  on  his 
visit  to  the  Mediterranean  ports  of  Spain  in  1837  and  1838  found 
no  fireplaces  except  in  the  houses  of  English  and  American  consuls.9 
According  to  Warren,  fireplaces  were  of  so  recent  introduction 
when  he  was  in  Spain  in  1849  that  it  was  very  difficult  to  secure  a 
room  that  had  one.  Wallis,  however,  was  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  fireplaces  and  other  modern  improvements  were  beginning  to 
be  introduced  that  same  year  in  the  capital.10  Nevertheless  Mrs. 
Le  Vert's  impression  six  years  later  seems  to  be  that  there  are  few 
in  the  city.11     Mills  found  rooms  with  fireplaces  at  the  capital  in 

7  Alexander  Slidell  Mackenzie,  Spain  revisited,  New  York,  1836,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
295,  206. 

8C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  p.  24.  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  56;  Revere,  p.  64;  The  Van 
Buren  papers,  vol.  xliii;  Larra,  p.  286. 

9  Charles  Steedman,  Memoirs  and  correspondence,  Cambridge,  1912,  p.  85; 
cf.  Dix,  p.  276. 

10  Wallis,  Spain,  pp.  8,  9. 

11  Le  Vert,  vol.  ii,  p.  32 


1 8  'American  Travellers  in  Spain 

1865  but  they  were  at  a  very  high  rate.12  Mackie,  in  1851,  was 
struck  by  the  absence  of  fireplaces  in  Barcelona.  There  was  only 
one  in  the  town  and  that  was  in  the  house  of  an  Englishman. 
Speaking  of  his  room  in  one  of  the  principal  fondas  he  says : 

"There  was  no  fire-place!  There  was  none  in  any  of  the  rooms. 
There  was  none  short  of  the  kitchen,  and  what  is  more,  there  was 
but  one,  as  I  afterward  learned,  in  the  whole  town  of  Barcelona. 
That  had  been  set  up  by  an  Englishman  of  course."13 

Mrs.  Le  Vert  found  the  rooms  cold  at  Cadiz  in  1855  because  there 
were  no  fireplaces.14  Even  ten  years  later  Mills  finds  the  inns  of 
Spain  very  uncomfortable  because  of  the  cold,  there  being  no  fire- 
places except  in  a  few  new  hotels.16  The  fireplace  in  the  posada  at 
El  Escorial  was  the  first  he  had  seen  since  leaving  Bayonne.16 

The  stove,  according  to  Warren,  was  an  unknown  luxury  in 
Spain  when  he  was  there  in  1849.17  Not  one  had  he  seen  in  the 
whole  country.  Moreover,  he  believes  that  it  would  be  very  diffi- 
cult to  transport  them  into  the  interior  from  abroad.  But  he  adds : 
"  If  ever  a  railroad  is  laid  down  from  Cadiz  to  Madrid,  a  cargo  of 
cooking  stoves  will  prove  a  most  profitable  speculation."18  Mackie 
about  two  years  later  was  impressed  with  a  modern  improvement 
for  heating  at  the  hotel  in  Barcelona.  This  was  a  small  pipe  which 
passed  from  the  kitchen  through  the  room  to  the  roof  and  at  least 
took  off  the  chill.19 

12  Mills,  p.  55- 

13  Mackie,  p.  143;  cf.  Vassar,  p.  317. 
"Le  Vert,  p.  328. 

15  Mills,  p.  47;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  153. 

16  Mills,  p.  56.— Mrs.  Byrne  travelling  in  Spain  the  following  year  notes 
the  absence  of  this  very  important  part  of  the  English  house:  "Fireplace,  of 
course,  there  was  none.  This  constitutes  a  chapter  in  domestic  economy  un- 
known to  the  penates  of  the  Peninsula — no  blazing  hearth  have  they,  round 
which  to  gather  on  the  chill  winter's  night.  They  know  not  the  mysterious 
power  of  that  domestic  magnet  which  draws  the  whole  family  circle,  from 
grandsire  to  grandchild  inclusive,  within  one  small  concentrated  focus  of  sym- 
pathy; and  unites,  in  one  common  bond  of  unity,  the  affection  of  three  genera- 
tions." She  adds  that  in  some  of  the  best  houses  there  are  French  fireplaces  in 
which  olivewood  is  burned,  giving  a  good  blaze.    Vol.  ii,  p.  325. 

17  Warren,  p.  28;  cf.  Larra,  p.  286. 

18  Warren,  p.  112. 

19  Mackie,  pp.  151,  152. 


Heating  Facilities  19 

A  means  of  heating  which  is  mentioned  by  nearly  all  travellers, 
but  which  is  considered  by  them  quite  insufficient,  is  the  brasero.20 
It  is  described  by  travellers  as  a  pan,  either  of  copper  or  of  brass 
set  in  a  large  wooden  frame  sometimes  of  very  beautiful  wood  such 
as  mahogany,  raised  just  enough  from  the  floor  on  wooden  legs  so 
that  the  feet  of  those  sitting  around  it  may  comfortably  use  it  as  a 
foot  rest.  Mackie  tells  us  that  the  brasero  is  rilled  with  a  superior 
kind  of  charcoal.  This  is  previously  burnt  in  the  open  air  and  stirred 
until  it  ceases  smoking  and  until  the  injurious  gases  have  passed  off. 
When  the  coals  are  covered  with  a  layer  of  white  ashes  it  is  brought 
in.21  "  In  the  palaces  of  the  nobility,"  says  Warren,  "  these  vessels 
are  made  in  an  ornamental  manner,  and  sometimes  enclosed  in  an 
immense  china  vase  with  numerous  little  holes  at  the  top  for  the 
escape  of  the  heated  air."22  Sometimes  the  brasero  was  placed 
under  the  dining  room  table.23  Sometimes  the  sleeping  room  was 
heated  with  it.24  According  to  Admiral  Steedman  it  was  placed 
under  a  circular  table  covered  with  a  thick  cloth.  Those  sitting 
around  it  were  able  to  keep  their  feet  and  legs  warm  but  their  backs 
were  cold.25  Mrs.  Le  Vert  was  impressed  with  the  contrast  of  the 
brasero  to  the  good  coal-fires  at  home.26    According  to  Mills  the 

20  Cf.  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  250;  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  pp.  56,  57; 
Vassar,  p.  317;  Irving,  Journals,  vol.  iii,  p.  6;  Bryant,  p.  206;  and  others. — 
Mesonero  Romanos  says  of  the  brasero :  "  He  aqui  un  objeto  paramonte  espafiol." 

21  Mackie,  p.  144.  Cf.  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  p.  24 ;  Ramon  de  Mesonero 
Romanos,  Escenas  Matritenses,  Madrid,  1881,  p.  363. 

22  Warren,  p.  112. 

23  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  119.    Cf.  Irving,  Journals,  vol.  iii,  p.  4. 

24  Caleb  Cushing,  Reminiscences  of  Spain,  Boston,  1853,  vol.  i,  pp.  106,  107. 
Cf.  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  p.  24;  Mackie,  p.  144. 

25  Steedman,  p.  85 ;  cf.  Byrne,  vol.  ii,  p.  326. 

26  Le  Vert,  vol.  i,  p.  329;  cf.  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  32.  Mrs.  Byrne  notes  this  con- 
trast and  is  even  more  critical  than  American  travellers.  She  writes  in  1866 
that  there  is  a  scarcity  of  fuel  in  La  Mancha  and  that  people  are  obliged  to  burn 
chopped  straw  and  vine  twigs  in  their  "  wretched  braseros."  Vol.  ii,  p.  262. — In 
another  place  she  calls  the  brasero  "  a  wretched  apology  for  a  fire/'  Ibid.,  p. 
326. — Again  she  writes :  "  Here  the  brasero  is  the  only  recognized  fireside ;  and 
it  is,  in  the  eyes  of  an  Englishman,  a  sorry  substitute  for  all  that  his  own  im- 
plies; it  seems  to  acknowledge  the  necessity  of  a  family  centre,  but  it  does  not 
realize  it."  Byrne,  vol.  ii,  p.  325. — The  Spaniard's  impression  of  the  brasero  is 
quite  different  from  that  of  the  foreign  traveller  in  the  country.  Flores  sings 
its  praises  in  his  "  Cuadro  cincuenta  y  dos,  Al  amor  de  la  lumbre,  of  an  inter- 
esting volume  called  Sociedad  de  la  fe  en  1800.    No  one,  however,  shows  the 


20  'American  Travellers  in  Spain 

brasero  was  the  only  means  of  heating  apartments  when  he  was  in 
Spain  in  1865  and  it  did  not  impress  him  as  being  a  satisfactory 
one.  The  hotel  where  he  stopped  at  Burgos  was  uncomfortable. 
As  there  was  only  a  brasero  of  charcoals  to  warm  the  room  he  de- 
good  qualities  of  the  beloved  brasero  better  than  Mesonero  Romanos.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  he  uses  much  the  same  arguments  in  defending  it  against 
the  invasion  of  the  English  mode  of  heating,  which  he  considers  inferior  to  the 
Spanish,  as  Mrs.  Byrne  uses  in  speaking  of  the  former  which  she  finds  far 
superior  to  the  latter.  Escenas  Matritenses,  p.  364. — In  his  Panorama  Matri- 
tense  he  writes :  "  No  se  puede  negar  que  un  brasero  def  endido  por  diez  6  doce 
personas,  todas  alegres,  todas  amables  y  sin  grandes  pretensiones,  es  una  de  las 
cosas  que  inspiran  mayor  confianza  y  dan  rienda  suelta  al  natural  ingenio  para 
desenvolverse  sin  aquellas  trabas  que  la  afectacion,  el  orgullo  y  el  falsamente 
llamado  buen  tono  suelen  imponerle."  P.  206. — Very  conservative  and  much 
attached  to  native  customs  and  things,  he  regrets  the  invasion  of  foreign  in- 
fluence following  the  death  of  Ferdinand  VII  and  fears  that  his  cherished 
brasero  along  with  many  other  things  Spanish  will  be  relegated  to  the  past.  In 
his  Escenas  Matritenses  he  says: 

"  Verdad  es  que,  segun  van  las  cosas  en  la  patria  del  Cid,  dentro  de  muy 
poco  tiempo  acaso  no  tengamos  ya  objetos  indigenas  de  que  ocuparnos,  cuando 
leyes,  administration,  ciencias,  literatura,  usos,  costumbres  y  monumentos  que 
nos  legaron  nuestros  padres  acaben  completamente  de  desaparecer,  que,  a  Dios 
las  gracias,  no  falta  mucho  ya." 

"  Entonces  desaparecera  tambien  el  brasero,  como  mueble  anejo,  retrogrado 
y  mal  sonante,  y  sera  sustituido  por  la  chimenea  francesa,  suiza  6  de  Albion; 
y  la  badila  dara  lugar  al  fuelle,  y  soplaremos  en  vez  de  escarbar."     P.  359. 

He  compares  the  brasero  with  the  stove,  which  he  calls  a  stupid  method  of 
heating:  "La  estufa,  pues,  es  un  metodo  de  calefaccion  estupido,  y  carece  de 
todo  genero  de  poesia."  P.  363. — For  him  no  means  of  heating  can  be  compared 
to  the  brasero:  "  Denme  el  brasero  espafiol,  tipico  y  primitivo,  con  su  sencilla 
caja  6  taritna;  su  blanca  ceniza  y  sus  encendidas  ascuas;  su  badil  excitante  y  su 
tapa  protectora;  denme  su  calor  suave  y  silencioso,  su  centro  convergente  de 
sociedad,  su  acompanamiento  circular  de  manos  y  pies.  Denme  la  franqueza  y 
bienestar  que  influye  en  su  calor  moderado,  la  igualdad  con  que  le  distribuye,  y 
si  es  entre  dos  luces,  denme  el  tfanquilo  resplandor  igneo  que  expelen  sus  ascuas, 
haciendo  reflejar  dulcemente  el  brillo  de  unos  ojos  arabes,  la  blancura  de  tez 
oriental.'* — According  to  Mesonero  Romanos,  even  in  the  social  aspect,  the 
brasero  is  superior  to  the  fireplace:  "  Ademas  ,;c6mo  comparar  a  la  chimenea 
con  el  brasero  bajo  el  aspecto  social,  quiero  decir,  sociabilitario  6  comunista, 
para  que  nos  entendamos?"  Ibid.,  p.  364. — He  sums  up  his  pleadings  in  defense 
of  the  Spanish  mode  of  heating  in  the  following  words :  "  Vemos,  pues,  que  ni 
social,  ni  politica,  no  humanitariamente  hablando,  puede  compararse  la  benefica 
influencia  del  brasero  con  la  de  la  galica  chimenea. — En  cuanto  a  lo  economico 
seguramente  que  tambien  tiene  la  preferencia,  por  mas  accesible  y  de  mas  seguro 
efecto;  y  por  lo  que  dice  relacion  a  la  forma,  tampoco  teme  la  comparacion. 

Y  sin  embargo  de  todas  estas  razones,  el  brasero  se  va."    Ibid.,  p.  366. 


Furnishings  2 1 

cided  to  go  on  to  Valladolid.27  There  conditions  were  no  better. 
At  Cadiz  he  suffered  from  both  the  cold,  and  the  fumes  from  the 
brasero. 

"  It  was  cold  in  the  evening  certainly,  and  when  tired  of  shivering 
in  shawls  and  overcoats,  we  inhaled  headaches  from  the  brasero, 
and  were  not  in  a  frame  of  mind  to  praise  the  hotel  very  highly."28 

IV. — Furnishings 

According  to  American  travellers,  many  of  these  inns  were 
scantily  furnished.  Adams  found  little  furniture  in  those  where 
he  stopped  in  1779,  and  the  floors  of  some  of  them  were  covered 
with  nothing  but  loose  straw.1  Noah  in  18 14  put  up  at  a  fonda  in 
Almeria  where  he  says  he  had  a  room  assigned  to  him  without  fur- 
niture.2 Ticknor  writes  in  1818:  "Even  in  the  large  cities  it  is 
astonishing  to  see  how  much  they  are  behindhand, — how  rude  and 
imperfect  is  their  house  furniture,  and  how  much  is  absolutely 
wanting."3  Mackenzie  was  impressed  with  the  scantiness  of  the 
furniture  in  1826.  His  first  room  at  the  Fonda  de  Malta,  the  best 
hotel  in  Madrid,  was  a  room  with  an  uncovered  tiled  floor  and 
naked  beams  above,  furnished  solely  with  two  chairs  and  a  bed  in 
an  alcove  at  one  end.4  The  room  into  which  he  moved  a  few  days 
later  was  furnished  somewhat  better.5  His  room  at  the  best  fonda 
in  Barcelona  impressed  him  as  desolate  in  comparison  with  French 
bedchambers.  Of  the  Fonda  of  the  Four  Nations  on  the  Rambla 
he  writes :  "  Being  of  modern  construction  we  found  large  and 
commodious  apartments.  But  to  one  accustomed  to  the  convenience 
and  luxury  of  a  French  bedchamber,  my  present  room  was  but 
dreary  and  desolate."    A  comfortless  bed,  a  few  chairs  and  a  table 

27  P.  47. 

2sIbid.,  p.  99.    Cf.  ibid.,  p.  153;  Mackie,  p.  144;  Byrne,  vol.  ii,  p.  326. 

1  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  241. — Swinburne  writes  in  1776:  "If  we  chance 
to  find  a  few  unbroken  chairs  we  esteem  ourselves  uncommonly  fortunate." 
P.  116;  cf.  Townsend,  vol.  ii,  p.  43- 

2  Noah,  p.  167 ;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  171. 

3  Ticknor,  Life,  vol.  i,  p.  197 ;  cf.  Scenes  in  Spain,  pp.  212,  300. 

4  A  Year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  125.  Cf.  Traces  of  the  Roman  and  Moor,  p. 
113;  Borrow,  vol.  i,  p.  162;  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  106. 

5  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  126 ;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  $. 


22  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

made  up  the  furnishings  in  the  room.6  Some  of  the  country  inns 
he  found  practically  destitute  of  furniture.7  Mrs.  Cushing,  about 
three  years  later,  stopped  in  Madrid  at  a  very  large  fonda  called 
the  Fontana  de  Oro.  She  makes  no  complaint  of  the  furniture  but 
to  the  contrary  tells  us  the  room  was  a  handsome  one  with  two  neat 
sleeping  and  dressing  rooms  connected  with  it.8  Like  Mackenzie, 
however,  she  found  some  of  the  smaller  inns  with  little  or  no  furni- 
ture.9 Vassar  describes  the  main  room  of  an  Andalusian  venta 
where  he  spent  a  night  in  1842  as  having  a  rude  table  with  benches 
for  the  sole  furniture;  the  chambers  were  completely  bare.10  The 
rooms  of  the  inns  between  Murcia  and  the  capital  he  found  gen- 
erally with  no  furniture  except  cot-beds.11  In  1849  tne  furniture 
of  Warren's  room  at  a  Toledan  inn  consisted  of  a  few  worm-eaten 
chairs,  a  common  brown  table,  and  two  dirty  looking  bedsteads.12 
Mrs.  Le  Vert  in  1855  was  impressed  with  her  magnificent  rooms  at 
a  casa  de  huespedes  in  Madrid.13  The  great  improvement  in  the 
furnishing  of  rooms  at  the  capital  struck  Pettigrew  on  his  second 
visit  to  Spain  in  1859.  The  rooms  he  found  as  elegant,  though  in 
a  different  style,  as  those  furnished  in  Paris.  At  the  time  of  his 
first  visit  in  1852  he  was  impressed,  like  Dumas  some  years  before, 
with  the  rickety  pieces  of  furniture.14     Also  in  smaller  places  in 

6  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  37,  3§ ;  cf.  ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  35- 

7  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  61 ;  cf.  Ford,  p.  177. — Pecchio,  about  five  years  before,  was 
impressed  wijh  the  scanty  furniture  in  the  houses.  In  a  letter  dated  Briviesca, 
May  9,  1821,  he  says:  "Una  casa  del  piu  mediocre  fittabile  inglese  vale  piu  che 
tutto  un  villagio  di  Spagna,"  Giuseppe  Pecchio,  Sei  Mesi  in  Ispagna  nel  1821, 
Madrid,  182 1,  p.  6. 

8  Vol.  ii,  p.  4& 

9  Vol.  ii,  pp.  231,  232.  Cf.  Irving,  Journals,  vol.  Hi,  p.  73;  Knick.  Mag.,  vol. 
xix,  p.  122;  Wallis,  Spain,  p.  6;  Ford,  p.  169. 

"P.  140. 

11  Ibid.,  p.  328. 

12  P.  in.  Cf.  p.  89;  Schroeder,  vol.  ii,  p.  in. — Dumas  enumerates  as  fol- 
lows the  pieces  of  furniture  in  his  poorly  furnished  room  at  Alcala  la  Real  in 
1846 :  "  D'abord  une  table  vermouloue,  deux  ou  trois  chaises  boiteuses,  qui  nous 
ont  inspire  si  peu  de  confiance,  que  Ton  a  monte  pour  les  remplacer  des  bancs 
de  la  cuisine."  Impressions  de  Voyage,  vol.  ii,  p.  69. — At  Sevilla  he  again  com- 
plains of  rickety  chairs,  which  he  does  not  consider  safe  to  sit  on.  Ibid.,  p.  222. 
Cf.  Pettigrew,  p.  91 ;  Larra,  pp.  286,  450. 

18  Le  Vert,  vol.  ii,  p.  15. 

14  P.  73. — Mrs.  Byrne  in  1866  found  scanty  and  poor  furniture  at  some  of 
the  inns.    Byrne,  vol.  ii,  pp.  263,  264. — Borrow  speaks  of  the  few  pieces  of  fur- 


Furnishings  23 

1859  he  notes  the  scanty  furniture.15  Likewise  Mrs.  Allen  was  im- 
pressed with  the  scanty  furniture  at  a  venta  where  she  stopped  be- 
tween Malaga  and  Granada  in  1864.18  A  piece  of  furniture  which 
impressed  several  American  travellers  in  Spain  before  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century  was  a  low  table  on  which  meals  were 
served.17 

The  American  traveller's  impressions  of  the  accommodations 
for  sleeping  were  in  many  cases  very  unfavorable.  The  bed,  a 
piece  of  furniture  which  he  had  always  found  so  indispensable  at 
home,  was  not  infrequently  entirely  wanting.  Adams  found  very 
few  beds  on  his  journey  through  Spain  in  1779.  Not  until  he 
reached  Leon  did  he  find  one  that  was  clean.  At  Briviesca,  how- 
ever, he  found  in  a  dirty  tavern  as  many  as  twelve  good  beds, 
which  were  provided  with  clean  sheets.18  Ticknor  on  his  journey 
from  Barcelona  to  Madrid  in  181 8  slept  on  a  bedstead  only  twice 
in  the  course  of  thirteen  days.  The  remaining  nights  were  passed 
sleeping  in  his  clothes  on  the  stone  floors,  which  were  very  uneven.19 

The  custom  among  the  common  people  of  sleeping  on  the  floor 
is  frequently  noted  by  American  travellers.  Adams  says  the  natives 
usually  slept  on  the  floor  and  sometimes  only  in  straw  like  animals. 
At  one  inn  where  he  stopped  in  Galicia  one  side  of  the  fire  was  a 

niture  in  the  apartment  where  he  stopped  at  Madrid  in  1837.  Borrow,  vol.  i, 
p.  162. — At  Oviedo  he  also  had  a  scantily  furnished  room.  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  73. — 
Gautier  found  bare  rooms  at  an  inn  beyond  Oviedo.  On  the  walls  of  the  dining- 
room,  however,  were  some  engravings,  an  unheard  of  luxury  according  to  him. 
Gautier,  p.  67. 

15  P.  299. 

16  P.  486. 

17  Cf.  Scenes  in  Spain,  pp.  119,  130,  221 ;  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  63;  ibid., 
vol.  ii,  p.  90;  ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  176;  Noah,  p.  134;  Ford,  p.  181. — -In  Scenes  in  Spain 
we  read  that  one  which  was  spread  at  Archidona  was  only  two  feet  high. — Dumas 
found  these  tables  very  uncomfortable.  Vol.  ii,  p.  50. — We  find  this  piece  of 
furniture  frequently  mentioned  in  Spanish  writings.  Larra  in  El  Castellano 
says :  "  Los  dias  en  que  mi  amigo  no  tiene  convidados  se  contenta  con  una 
mesa  baja,  poco  mas  que  banqueta  de  zapatero;  por  que  el  y  su  mujer,  como 
dice,  ipara  que  quieren  mas?  "  Larra,  p.  37.  Cf.  Los  Espaiioles  pintados  por  si 
mismos,  vol.  ii,  p.  231 ;  Antonio  Flores,  Ayer  Hoy  y  Mariana,  Madrid,  1863, 
vol.  i,  p.  31. — This  low  table  was  still  used  at  some  inns,  according  to  Mrs. 
Byrne,  when  she  travelled  in  Spain  in  1866.    Vol.  ii,  pp.  254,  263. 

18  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  pp.  242,  247,  253. 

19  Ticknor,  Life,  vol.  i,  p.  185 ;  cf.  Larra,  p.  165. 


24  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

cabin  filled  with  straw  where  the  innkeeper's  wife  and  four  children 
"all  pigged  in  together.',2°  Mackenzie  at  the  inn  at  Guadarrama 
offered  his  guide  a  bed,  but  the  latter  preferred  to  sleep  on  the 
floor.21    For  many,  we  are  told,  a  bed  was  a  superfluity.22 

The  sight  of  the  kitchen  floor  covered  with  sleeping  muleteers 
is  frequently  mentioned  by  American  travellers.  Like  the  muleteer 
in  the  venta  room  where  Don  Quijote  rested  after  his  adventure 
with  the  yangiieses,  their  beds  were  made  of  the  pack  saddles  and 
blankets  of  their  mules.23  Mrs.  Cushing  writes  of  the  sight  pre- 
sented by  one  of  these  large  kitchens  early  in  the  morning: 

"  When  I  entered  the  kitchen  to  take  some  chocolate  for  breakfast, 
I  found  the  floor  covered  in  every  direction  with  muleteers,  who, 
using  their  cloaks  instead  of  a  bed,  were  reposing  in  the  deepest 
slumber,  of  which  their  audible  breathing  gave  full  evidence."24 

Rockwell  was  impressed  by  a  similar  sight.  Each  muleteer  after  a 
hearty  meal  and  a  joyful  evening  wrapt  himself  in  his  blanket  and 
lay  down  in  the  most  convenient  place,  the  ground,  the  hearth  or 
a  bench,  and  slept  until  morning.25  Vassar  writes  of  his  journey 
from  Granada  to  Cordoba  in  1842:  "The  first  night  we  slept  in  a 
venta,  upon  a  brick  floor,  among  horses,  mules,  drivers,  and  others 

20  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  241. — More  than  thirty  years  later  George  Borrow  on 
stopping  at  a  chosa  on  his  way  to  Finisterre  from  Padron,  was  told  there  was  no 
bed.  The  occupants  had  never  slept  in  a  bed.  They  either  lay  down  around  the 
hearth  or  in  the  straw  with  the  cattle.  Vol.  ii,  p.  118.  Cf.  Mackie,  p.  142; 
Ford,  p.  183. 

21 A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  ii,  p.  39. 

22  Pecchio  in  one  of  his  letters  in  1821  says  that  the  soldiers  slept  on  the 
floor  in  the  houses  of  the  rich  Andalusians  in  preference  to  sleeping  in  a  bed. 
He  adds :  "  Dicevano  che  non  potevano  dormire  in  quelle  macchine  per  loro 
sconosciute."    P.  8. 

23  Cf.  Don  Quijote,  part  i,  chap,  xvi ;  Washington  Irving,  Works,  New  York, 
1882,  vol.  vii,  p.  535 ;  Scenes  in  Spain,  p.  234 ;  Ford,  p.  183. 

24  Vol.  ii,  p.  233.  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  47,  181,  279;  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  iii,  p.  175; 
Ford,  p.  183. — This  recalls  one  of  Pecchio's  letters  in  which  he  says :  "  La 
maggior  parte  della  gente  rozza  porta  in  tutte  le  stagioni  sulle  spalle  una  coperta 
di  lana  a  vari  colori  che  nel  giorno  le  serve  di  mantello  e  nella  notte  di  letto." 
Pp.  6,  7. 

25  Vol.  i,  p.  253.  Cf.  Longfellow,  Life,  vol.  i,  p.  129 ;  A  year  in  Spain,  vol. 
iii,  p.  236. 


Furnishings  25 

of  bandit  appearance."26  There  were  no  beds  in  the  house.  Bryant 
in  1857  observes  that  muleteers  were  sleeping  on  the  floor  of  the 
inn  at  Aranda.  "  We  got  down  stairs  by  stepping  over  the  bodies 
of  about  a  dozen  muleteers,  who,  wrapped  in  their  blankets  lay 
snoring  on  the  floor  of  an  ante-chamber."27  Mrs.  Allen  found  no 
bed  at  an  inn  where  she  stopped  between  Malaga  and  Granada  in 
1864.28 

Even  when  the  sleeping  quarters  were  not  in  the  kitchen,  the 
traveller  frequently  found  them  very  primitive  at  the  smaller  inns. 
Mackie  on  stopping  at  one  of  these  inns  in  1852  had  the  choice  of 
sleeping  with  mules  on  the  first  floor  or  on  the  newly  gathered  grain 
in  the  second.29  Sometimes  a  bed  was  prepared  on  the  floor  in  this 
room  above  or  in  a  room  adjoining  the  kitchen.30 

Now  and  then  a  wretched  flock-bed  was  furnished.  It  was  such 
a  one  that  the  author  of  Scenes  in  Spain  found  at  Alhama  in  183 1.31 
The  mattress  furnished  was  often  of  the  poorest  description  and 
exceedingly  uncomfortable.32  Taylor  found  his  at  the  venta  in 
Gaucin  much  too  short.33 

26  P.  141.  Cf.  Knick.  Mag.,  vol.  xix,  p.  122;  National  Magazine,  vol.  xi, 
p.  360. — About  four  years  later  Dumas  was  impressed  by  the  sight  of  a  kitchen 
floor  covered  with  sleeping  muleteers.  In  passing  out  of  the  kitchen  at  Alcala 
la  Real  early  in  the  morning  he  had  to  step  over  a  dozen  muleteers  asleep  on 
the  floor:  "lis  s'etaient  eparpilles  dans  la  venta.  Chacun  selon  son  gout  et  sa 
commodite  avait  pris  sa  place ;  Tun  couche  tout  de  son  long  sur  le  cote  gauche 
ou  le  cote  droit,  l'autre  adosse  au  mur,  l'autre  etendu  tout  de  son  long  sur  le 
dos  avec  les  deux  mains  sous  sa  tete  en  place  de  tout  oreiller."  Dumas,  vol.  ii, 
p.  71. 

27  Bryant,  p.  114.  Cf.  Scenes  in  Spain,  p.  234;  Irving,  Journals,  vol.  iii, 
PP.  72,  73',  Wallis.,  Glimpses  of  Spain,  p.  282. 

28  Allen,  p.  486. 

29  Mackie,  p.  349.     Cf.  Ford,  p.  183 ;  Flores,  vol.  i,  p.  317. 

30  Cf.  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  ii,  p.  228;  ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  176,  188;  Scenes  in 
Spain,  pp.  29,  48,  118,  120;  Knick.  Mag.,  vol.,  xix,  p.  122;  Traces  of  the  Roman 
and  Moor,  p.  410;  Pettigrew,  p.  299. 

31  P.  234.    Cf.  Borrow,  vol.  i,  p.  277 ;  vol.  ii,  p.  50. 

32  C/.  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol*,  ii,  pp.  38,  39,  337,  339;  Bryant,  p.  162;  Mills,  p. 
70. — The  impression  of  other  foreigners  in  the  country  seems  to  have  been 
similar.  Cf.  Bourgoing,  vol.  i,  p.  3;  Ford,  p.  57;  Byrne,  vol.  ii,  pp.  271,  319. — 
Gautier  describes  the  mattress  on  which  he  slept  one  night  in  1840  as  one  of 
"ces  pellicules  de  toile  entre  lesquelles  flottent  quelques  tampons  de  laine  que 
les  hoteliers  pretendent  etre  des  matelas,  avec  reffronterie  pleine  de  sang-froid 
qui   les  caracterise.     P.   197. — Gautier's  impressions  of  this  bed   were  quite  as 


26  'American  Travellers  in  Spain 

When  a  bedstead  was  furnished,  it  was,  in  many  instances,  but 
a  rude  piece  of  furniture  or  a  makeshift.  Mackenzie  describes  his 
at  Madrid  as  a  set  of  loose  boards  supported  on  two  horses  and 
painted  green.34  That  on  which  Mrs.  Cushing  slept  at  the  posada 
in  Buytrago  was  a  common  wooden  frame  without  posts.35  Bryant 
was  impressed  at  the  Posada  de  Alicante  in  the  town  of  Villera, 
Murcia,  "with  the  rude  bedsteads  which  were  made  of  beam  and 
plank  by  some  coarse  carpenter."36 

For  many  years  the  traveller  who  had  to  stop  at  small  towns 
and  villages  was  obliged  to  carry  not  only  his  bedclothes  but  also 
his  mattress.     Adams  writes  to  the  President  of  Congress  from 

unfavorable  as  were  Don  Quijote's  impressions  of  one  at  the  country  venta 
where  he  stopped  for  a  night.  "  Un  colchon  que  en  lo  sutil  parecia  colchon, 
lleno  de  bodoques;  que,  a  no  mostrar  que  eran  de  lana  por  algunas  roturas,  al 
tiento,  en  la  dureza,  semejaban  de  guijarro,  y  dos  sabanas  hechas  de  cuero  de 
adarza,  y  una  frazada  cuyos  hilos,  si  se  quisieron  contar,  no  se  perdiera  uno  solo 
de  la  cuenta."  Don  Quijote,  part  i,  chap.  xvi. — According  to  Mesenero  Romanos 
the  beds  were  sometimes  so  poor  it  was  impossible  to  rest.  Panorama  Matri- 
tense,  p.  108;  cf.  Los  Espanoles  pintados  por  si  mismos,  vol.  ii,  pp.  165,  235. 

33  Taylor,  p.  444. — Pecchio  had  found  the  same  difficulty  some  thirty  years 
before.  He  writes  in  a  letter  headed  Briviesca  May  9,  1821 :  "  II  letto  era  di  un 
terzo  piu  corto  della  mia  persona  che  non  e  gigantesca,  come  sapete,  barcol- 
lante,  et  emulo  del  pavimento  in  durezza."    P.  5. 

34  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  147 ;  cf.  Irving,  Works  vol.  vii,  pp.  536,  538. — 
Townsend's  description  of  the  makeshift  bedstead  he  found  at  Junquera  forty 
years  before  Mackenzie's  visit  to  Spain  is  quite  similar  to  that  just  given.  He 
says :  "  No  bedstead,  but  only  three  boards  laid  upon  trestles  to  support  a  mat- 
tress." Vol.  i,  p.  92. — Gautier's  description  of  a  bedstead  on  which  he  slept  one 
night  during  his  journey  through  Spain  in  1840  is  exactly  the  same,  **  forme  de 
trois  planches  posees  sur  deux  treteaux."  P.  197. — The  makeshift  bedstead 
offered  Mrs.  Byrne  at  the  fonda  in  Valdepeiias  in  1864  was  even  worse.  "  The 
repast  despatched,  we  thought  it  time  to  see  the  beds,  and  consequently  asked 
to  be  conducted  to  our  rooms;  this  was  quite  a  poser,  and  elicited  the  most 
curious  revelation.  It  turned  out  there  were  no  rooms  in  the  case!  but  the 
beds,  we  were  told,  should  be  brought  in  as  soon  as  we  wanted  them;  we 
begged  to  see  them  at  once,  on  which,  after  a  brief  delay,  three  boards  were 
brought  in,  and  placed  in  an  inclined  position  by  resting  one  end  on  a  bench; 
this  proved  to  be  the  best  they  could  produce."  Vol.  ii,  p.  271. — One  would  con- 
clude from  the  above  descriptions  that  the  bedstead  which  was  sometimes  pro- 
vided for  the  traveller  had  improved  little  since  the  days  of  the  Knight  of  La 
Mancha.  Don  Quijote  says  of  a  bedstead  on  which  he  slept  one  night  at  a 
country  venta:  *  Solo  contenia  cuatro  mal  lesas  tablas  sobre  dos  muy  iguales 
bancos."    Don  Quijote,  part  i,  chap.  xvi. 

35  Vol.  ii,  p.  39. 
38  Bryant,  p.  162. 


Furnishings  27 

Bilbao  January  16, 1779,  that  on  the  journey  from  La  Coruiia  to  that 
place  he  and  his  party  were  obliged  to  carry  their  beds  with  them.37 
Jay  had  to  make  such  a  provision  for  his  journey  from  Cadiz  to 
Madrid  in  1780.38  Monroe  referring  to  a  wretched  inn  at  Irun  in 
1804  says :  "  However,  it  seemed  to  be  my  fate  to  remain  there  that 
night,  and  in  consequence  I  ordered  up  my  bedding,  baggage,  etc., 
with  the  intention  to  make  the  best  arrangement  I  could."39  Noah 
carried  his  bed  with  him  during  his  travels  in  Spain.  At  a  village 
inn  where  he  stopped  between  Tortosa  and  Tarragona  the  mat- 
tresses were  arranged  on  clean  straw  in  the  same  room  as  the 
mules.40  Irving,  writing  of  a  journey  made  from  Granada  to 
Valencia  in  1829,  tells  us  that  his  bed  at  night  was  the  mattress  he 
had  brought  with  him  in  the  cart.41  Rockwell  notes  the  custom  of 
carrying  mattresses  in  the  public  conveyances.  In  1836  he  found 
them  listed  in  the  printed  bills  of  baggage  rates  and  in  the  receipts 
for  fares.42  Vassar  had  to  carry  his  mattress  on  a  journey  between 
Granada  and  Cordoba  in  1842. 43 

Somewhat  better  than  the  one  room  venta  was  the  posada  with 
a  common  dormitory.  Sometimes,  according  to  American  travel- 
lers, it  was  a  rudely  arranged  room  quite  like  the  venta  room  in 
which  Don  Quijote,  Sancho,  and  the  arriero  slept,  and  sometimes  it 
had  several  beds.  The  posada  at  Quintana  where  Mackenzie  stopped 
for  a  night  in  1826  had  a  common  dormitory.44  In  1834  he  found 
a  similar  arrangement  at  Guadalajara,  and  also  at  Guadarrama. 
Of  the  inn  at  Guadarrama  he  writes :  "  According  to  the  custom  in 
Spanish  post-houses  established  in  connection  with  the  diligences, 
we  were  all  packed  into  a  common  dormitory/'45    March  in  1852 

37  Rev.  dip.  corres.,  vol.  iii,  p.  457.  Cf.  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  244;  ibid., 
vol.  iii,  p.  242;  Swinburne,  pp.  116,  117,  231. 

38  Correspondence,  vol.  i,  p.  333 ;  cf.  Bourgoing,  vol.  i,  p.  8. 

39  Diary. 

40  Noah,  p.  179.    Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  136,  163;  Ticknor,  Travels,  p.  17. 

41  Life,  vol.  ii,  p.  179.  Cf.  Irving,  Letters,  vol.  ii,  p.  223;  Journals,  vol. 
iii,  pp.  65,  66,  68,  80. 

42  Rockwell,  vol.  i,  p.  252 ;  cf.  Panorama  Matritense,  p.  106. 

43  Vassar,  p.  142. — This  custom  of  carrying  one's  mattress  when  travelling 
is  also  noted  by  Spanish  writers.  Cf.  Flores,  vol.  i,  p.  311;  Panorama  Matri- 
tense, p.  108;  Larra,  p.  6. 

44  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  it,  pp.  94,  95,  227.  Cf.  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  p. 
253;  Irving,  Journals,  vol.  iii,  p.  5;  Ford,  p.  57. 

45  Spain  revisited,  vol.  ii,  p.  52. 


28  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

had  difficulty  in  procuring  a  room  to  himself  at  the  posada  in  La 
Luisiana.46 

The  American  traveller's  impressions  of  the  facilities  for  bath- 
ing at  Spanish  inns  during  this  period  were  most  unfavorable.  In 
some  of  the  small  country  inns  the  means  for  the  morning  ablu- 
tions were  meagre  or  entirely  wanting.  Irving  writes  in  his  journal 
at  Venta  del  Conde  near  Canales:  "great  delay  and  difficulty  in 
getting  wash-basins,  water,  towels,  etc.,  cleanliness  of  person  not 
being  considered  among  the  wants  of  the  traveller.,,  Their  presence 
is  mentioned  as  though  it  were  a  fact  worthy  of  note  just  as  the 
absence  of  pulgas  is  mentioned  by  others.  Mackenzie  tells  us  that 
in  the  very  neat  inn  at  Quintanar  there  were  basins  of  glazed 
earthenware  and  pitchers  of  water,  with  a  clean  towel  of  coarse 
linen  for  each  passenger,  hanging  from  nails  against  the  wall.47 
Dix  in  1843  found  plenty  of  clean  towels  and  large  wash  basins  at 
his  lodgings  in  Cadiz  but  this  was  almost  the  only  house  in  Spain 
where  he  did  find  them.48  The  following  year  Schroeder  was  very 
gratified  to  find  at  the  very  clean  little  inn  at  Loja  a  good  supply 
of  towels  and  stone  ewers.49  At  a  venta  where  Smedberg  stopped 
there  was  no  basin  and  he  was  obliged  to  go  down  to  the  stream 
and  bathe.60  Many  of  the  wash  basins  were  very  small  like  that 
which  was  provided  in  Mackie's  room  at  the  principal  fonda  of 
Barcelona  in  i85i.B1 

46  March,  p.  230. — Townsend  and  Ford  mention  the  common  dormitory  of 
the  Spanish  posada.  Townsend,  vol.  ii,  passim;  Ford,  p.  57. — Flores  writes  of 
the  conditions  at  the  old  inn:  "  Terminada  la  cena  se  retiraron  a  dormir,  los 
hombres  a  un  cuarto,  y  las  mujeres  a  otro,  y  obligados,  por  la  necesidad,  a 
hacer  cama  redonda  los  de  cada  departamento,  pasaron  la  noche  en  dos  piezas, 
contiguas  a  las  camaras  de  grano,  6  tal  vez  en  los  graneros  mismos."  Vol.  i, 
PP-  317,  318. — An  inn  which  impressed  Gautier  in  1840  was  an  improvement  on 
the  one  just  mentioned  in  that  it  had  several  sleeping  rooms,  but  even  these 
had  each  four  or  five  beds :  "  Cette  f ois  la  posada  etait  beaucoup  plus  espagnole 
que  celles  que  nous  avions  vues  jusqu'alors:  elle  consistait  en  une  immense 
ecurie  entouree  de  chambres  blanchies  au  l'ait  de  chaux,  et  contenant  chacune 
quatre  ou  cinq  lits."    Gautier,  p.  67. 

47  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  116. 

48  P.  220. 

49  Schroeder,  vol.  ii,  p.  no. 

80  Nat.  Mag.,  vol.  ii,  p.  360;  cf.  Ford,  p.  177. 

81  Mackie  describes  it  as  a  very  narrow  basin  resting  on  a  slender  stand. 
"  But,"  he  adds,  "  in  a  country  so  much  better  provided  with  wine  than  it  is 


Furnishings  29 

At  times  there  was  difficulty  in  securing  enough  water.  Bryant 
was  greatly  annoyed  by  this  at  one  of  the  inns  where  he  stopped  in 
1857.  The  incident  is  recounted  as  follows  in  a  letter  dated 
"Cartagena,  Old  Spain,  November  28,  1857:" 

"The  greatest  difficulty  we  had  was  in  obtaining  a  sufficient  sup- 
ply of  water  for  our  morning  ablutions.  A  single  large  washbowl, 
half  filled  with  water,  was  placed  on  a  stand  in  the  corner  of  the 
great  room,  and  this  was  expected  to  serve  for  all.  We  called  for 
more  water,  and  a  jar  was  brought  in,  from  which  the  washbowl 
was  filled  to  the  brim.  We  explained  that  each  one  of  us  wanted  a 
separate  quantity  of  pure  water,  but  the  stout  waiting- woman  had 
no  idea  of  conforming  to  our  outlandish  notions,  and  declined  doing 
any  thing  more  for  us.  It  was  only  after  an  appeal  to  the  landlady, 
that  a  queer  Murcian  pitcher,  looking  like  a  sort  of  sky-rocket,  with 
two  handles,  five  spouts,  and  a  foot  so  small  that  it  could  hardly 
stand  by  itself,  was  brought  in,  and  for  greater  security  made  to 
lean  against  the  wall  in  the  corner  of  the  room."52 

Even  scarcer  than  wash  basins  and  water  at  these  inns  were  the 
facilities  for  bathing.  Toward  the  middle  of  the  century,  however, 
according  to  the  American  travellers,  there  was  marked  progress 
in  this  respect,  as  well  as  in  other  ideas  of  comfort.  Between  1833 
and  1843,  in  particular,  there  was  great  improvement.53  No  fonda 
showed  this  more  than  did  the  Fonda  de  la  Alameda  at  Malaga 
where  Wallis  stopped  in  1847.     This  fonda  had  been  opened  only 

with  water — and  in  a  country  where  even  the  highest  dames  are  said  merely  to 
rub  their  faces  with  a  moist  napkin  instead  of  laving  them — what  more  could 
be  expected?  I  should  have  been  thought  as  crazy  as  he  of  La  Mancha  to  have 
found  fault  with  such  arrangements/'     P.  141. 

82  Bryant,  pp.  162,  163. — This  experience  of  Bryant  recalls  a  similar  one  re- 
counted in  Los  aires  del  lugar  of  the  Panorama  Matritense:  "  Pedimos  agua 
para  lavarnos,  nos  trajeron  una  jofaina  sucia  y  ordinaria  que  pusieron  sobre  una 
silla,  y  para  hacer  que  mudaran  el  agua  a  cada  uno,  tuvimos  que  sostener  tantas 
cuestiones  como  individuos  eramos."  Pp.  107,  108. — At  Valladolid  in  1866 
Mrs.  Byrne  had  to  ask  for  an  extra  supply  of  washing  appliances.  At  the 
fonda  in  Cordoba  she  found  no  provisions  whatever  for  ablutions.  "  The 
rooms,"  she  says,  "  were  wholly  unprovided  with  any  furniture  suggestive  of 
ablution,  and  it  was  not  easy  even  to  make  our  need  of  such  accessories  under- 
stood." Vol.  ii,  p.  294. — It  was  only  after  a  great  deal  of  trouble  that  they  were 
given  washing  stands,  water,  and  towels.  Mrs.  Byrne  found  the  houses  not 
frequented  by  English  travellers  were  usually  deficient  in  these  facilities.  Vol.  i, 
p.  106;  vol.  ii,  p.  294.     Cf.  Ford,  p.  142. 

63  Cf.  Dix,  p.  220. 


30  'American  Travellers  in  Spain 

about  a  month  when  he  reached  that  city.  It  owed  its  estab- 
lishment, he  tells  us,  to  a  company  of  enterprising  young  men  of 
the  city  who  while  abroad  had  imbibed  new  ideas  as  to  the  needs 
of  a  modern  inn.  An  abundant  supply  of  water  carried  in  pipes  to 
the  upper  floors  was  plentifully  provided  in  every  room.54  Other 
American  travellers  were  greatly  impressed  by  the  provisions  for 
bathing  at  this  hotel.  Taylor,  who  stopped  here  in  1852,  found  a 
good  bath.55  March,  who  sojourned  here  the  following  year  while 
in  Malaga,  considers  it  a  good  hotel  and  mentions  particularly  the 
foot  baths  which,  he  informs  us,  are  not  generally  found  at  Spanish 
hotels.56  It  impressed  Bryant  in  1857  as  one  of  the  best  hotels  in 
Spain.57 

At  Granada,  baths — in  the  time  of  the  Moors  found  in  every 
street  and  indeed  in  every  house — were  not  in  1853  general  in  the 
fondas,  though  these  were  in  other  respects  good.  These  facilities 
had  only  recently  been  introduced  at  the  principal  inn,  the  Leon  de 
Oro.  "Baths,  that  necessary  luxury  of  hotels,"  writes  March, 
"have  but  recently  been  attached  to  the  fondas  of  Spain,  nor  are 
now  a  general  institution  with  them."58  In  185 1  Mackie  notes  the 
absence  of  this  necessity  at  the  principal  fonda  in  Barcelona.59  And 
yet  Irving,  soon  after  his  arrival  there  in  1829,  writes  in  his  journal : 
"took  a  warm  bath — excellent  baths — well  tiled."60  Among  the  im- 
provements which  impressed  Pettigrew  on  his  second  visit  to  Spain 
in  1859  were  the  "  footbath  and  the  other  appliances  of  a  first  rate 
hotel "  at  Zaragoza.61 

54Wallis,  Glimpses  of  Spain,  pp.  90,  93. 

65  "  At  the  Fonda  de  la  Alameda,  a  new  and  very  elegant  hotel,  I  found  a 
bath  and  a  good  dinner,  both  welcome  things  to  a  tired  traveller."    P.  434. 
56  P.  34i. 
67  Bryant,  p.  193. 
"  P.  360. 

59  P.  141. 

60  Journals,  vol.  iii,  p.  00. — This  bath,  however,  was  probably  not  at  the  inn 
but  in  a  casa  de  barios. 

61  P.  73. — Ford  found  warm  baths  pretty  generally  established  in  the  larger 
towns  when  he  was  in  Spain.  P.  142. — According  to  Mesenero  Romanos  great 
reforms  were  instituted  in  connection  with  the  baths  at  the  capital  in  1835. 
However,  judging  from  his  difficulty  in  finding  one  he  must  have  considered 
them  far  too  few.  In  his  interesting  sketch,  Las  Casas  de  banos,  he  says  that 
after  much  trouble  in  going  from  one  to  another  his  efforts  are  crowned  with 


Furnishings  3 1 

Some  of  the  early  American  travellers  in  Spain  were  impressed 
by  the  primitive  and  inadequate  cutlery.  Noah  in  1814  took  dinner 
at  a  village  where  he  was  obliged  to  eat  with  wooden  spoons  and 
forks.  "  Silver,"  he  says,  "  is  an  unknown  luxury  and  other  metals 
are  equally  scarce."62  Ticknor  is  astonished  in  1818  to  see  how 
much  they  are  behind  in  this  respect  even  in  the  large  cities. 

"  The  chief  persons  in  a  village — I  mean  the  respectable  ecclesiastics 
the  alcaldes — often  have  no  glass-ware  in  their  houses,  no  dinner- 
knives,  and  little  of  earthen  manufactory  [sic]  while  a  metal  fork 
is  a  matter  of  curiosity."63 

At  the  posada  in  the  village  of  Ondrubia  Mrs.  Cushing  found  three 
knives  for  seven  people  and  at  the  next  inn  conditions  were  even 
worse.64  The  author  of  Scenes  in  Spain  had  placed  before  him  at 
one  of  these  primitive  inns  a  plate  and  a  horn  spoon.  When  he 
asked  for  a  knife  they  brought  him  a  jacknife,  but  this  he  was 
obliged  to  surrender  a  few  minutes  later  to  the  stable  boy  to  whom 
it  belonged.65  Channing  on  the  contrary  was  impressed  in  1852 
by  the  plentiful  supply  of  cutlery.  He  writes:  "The  table  was 
always  neat,  and,  amidst  the  mountains,  silver  or  plated  forks  were 
as  plenty  as  in  the  city."66 

success.  On  entering  the  room  of  one  of  the  newest  and  best  baths  in  the  city 
he  is  struck  with  the  improvement  that  has  'been  made:  "  Entre  en  la  pieza  del 
bafio;  encontre  en  ella  sillas  para  sentarme  y  colocar  mi  ropa,  una  mesa  para 
poner  el  dinero  y  el  reloj ;  espejo,  cepillos,  peines,  sacabotas,  una  pila  hermosa 
de  alabastro.  jYo  estaba  absorto!  .  .  .  creia  no  encontrarme  en  Madrid  .  .  . 
Por  fin,  me  meti  en  el  agua  y  .  .  .  calle."  Panorama  Matritense,  p.  372. — Mrs. 
Byrne  in  1866  presents  quite  a  different  picture  of  the  baths  at  the  capital.  She 
finds  them  few  and  little  used.  Moreover,  she  is  impressed  by  their  bad  condi- 
tion. One  which  is  considered  the  best  she  finds  very  much  dilapidated  and 
another  has  no  fireplace  or  gas.  Two  others  she  describes  as  in  tolerably  fair 
working  order,  but  all,  in  her  judgment,  are  on  a  small  scale.    Vol.  i,  pp.  218,219. 

62  P.  182.    Cf.  ibid.,  p.  166 ;  Knick.  Mag.,  vol.  xix,  p.  125. 

63  Ticknor,  Life,  vol.  i,  pp.  197,  198,  cf.  Ford,  p.  56. 

e*  Vol.  ii,  pp.  34  35,  37-  Cf.  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  68 ;  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
61,  62. 

65  P.  130.  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  119,  121;  Ford,  pp.  56,  181;  Los  Espaiioles  pintados 
por  si  mismos,  vol.  ii,  pp.  234-238. 

66  Channing,  p.  491. 


32  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

V. — Food  and  Beverages 


ellers 


The  early  American  traveller  in  Spain  and  even  later  travel 
in  isolated  parts  of  that  country  were  impressed  both  with  the 
necessity  of  carrying  with  them  not  only  the  bed — of  which  we 
have  already  spoken — but  also  food  and  utensils  for  preparing  it.1 
Adams  tells  us  that  he  and  his  party  in  1779  had  to  carry  all  of 
their  food.2  Jay  in  1780  was  obliged  at  Cadiz  to  make  all  provi- 
sions for  meals  to  be  taken  on  his  journey  to  Madrid.3  Monroe 
when  he  travelled  from  Bayonne  to  Madrid  in  1804  had  to  carry 
his  own  provisions.4  Ticknor  in  1818  found  the  inns  of  Aragon 
especially  lacking  in  provisions.5  Later  travellers  had  similar  ex- 
periences. Irving  writes  in  1829:  "The  posadas  and  ventas  have 
seldom  anything  to  give  you."6  At  a  venta  where  Mrs.  Allen 
stopped  between  Malaga  and  Granada  in  1864  there  was  nothing 
to  eat  or  drink  not  even  water.  She  writes :  "  We  asked  for  some 
water — there  was  none,  but  they  would  send  a  boy  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  to  get  some."7 

The  traveller  found  that  provisions,  even  where  they  were  pro- 
vided, were  in  many  cases  extremely  meagre.  At  one  house  where 
Noah  stopped  he  found  nothing  but  wood  and  water.8  At  the  prin- 
cipal inn  at  Lake  Albufera  near  Valencia  Mackie  was  told  the  only 
provisions  in  the  larder  were  potatoes  and  onions.  "This  was  so 
characteristic  of  the  country,"  says  Mackie,  "  that  I  could  scarcely 

1  Cf.  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  p.  277;  Washington  Irving,  Alhambra,  New  York, 
189S,  PP-  16,  29;  Ford,  pp.  82,  113,  122,  167,  168,  171;  Larra,  p.  165. 

2  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  244 ;  cf.  Rev.  dip  corres.,  vol.  Hi,  p.  458.— The 
food  was  carried  in  saddle  bags  on  each  mule :  "  There  are  wallets  or  saddle- 
bags on  each  made  with  canvas,  in  which  we  carry  bread  and  cheese,  meat, 
knives  and  forks,  spoons,  apples,  and  nuts."     Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  243. 

^Correspondence,  vol.  i,  pp.  333,  334.  Cf.  Swinburne,  pp.  79,  116,  117,  231; 
Townsend,  vol.  i,  pp.  1,  2. 

*  Diary;  cf.  Noah,  pp.  135,  168. 

5  Ticknor,  Life,  vol.  i,  p.  185. 

6  Letters,  vol.  ii,  p.  223 ;  cf.  Works,  vol.  vii,  p.  535- 
«  Allen,  p.  486. 
8  Noah,  p.  187.    Cf.  ibid.,  p.  163;  Ticknor,  Travels,  p.  24;  A  year  in  Spain, 

vol.  ii,  pp.  17,  18,  228;  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  p.  188;  Scenes  in  Spain,  p.  29; 
Byrne,  vol.  ii,  p.  16. 


Food  and  Beverages  v* 

refrain  from  laughing  in  his  face."9    He  adds  that  the  nearest  place 
where  one  could  get  bread  was  six  miles  away. 

Much  fun  is  made  by  travellers  in  general  of  the  inn  keeper 
and  his  ill  provisioned  inn.  Variations  of  the  conversation  which 
Sancho  Panza  had  with  the  huesped  at  the  hostelry  in  Zaragoza  are 
repeated  frequently  in  books  of  travel.10  Mackie  relates  an  amus- 
ing conversation  with  an  innkeeper  who  began  by  saying  "  Hay  de 
todo,"  but  who  had  only  the  means  of  cooking  and  serving  what  the 
traveller  had  brought.  On  entering  an  inn  Mackie  has  the  follow- 
ing conversation  with  the  innkeeper : 

9  P.  314. — In  the  Spanish  writings  of  the  period  we  are  studying,  this  lack 
of  provisions  at  Spanish  inns  is  frequently  mentioned.  Cf.  Larra,  p.  450;  Flores, 
vol.  i,  p.  317;  Panorama  Matritense,  p.  107;  Los  Espaiioles  pintados  por  si 
mismos,  vol.  ii,  pp.  231-238. 

10  "  Llegose  la  hora  de  cenar ;  recogieronse  a  su  estancia ;  pregunto  Sancho 
al  huesped  que  que  tenia  para  darles  de  cenar.  A  lo  que  el  huesped  respondio 
que  su  boca  seria  medida;  y  asi,  que  pidiese  lo  que  quisiese:  que  de  las  pajaricas 
del  aire,  de  las  aves  de  la  tierra  y  de  los  pescados  del  mar  estaba  proveida 
aquella  venta. 

— No  es  menester  tanto-respondio  Sancho ;  que  con  un  par  de  polios  que  nos 
asen  tendremos  lo  suficiente,  porque  mi  senor  es  delicado  y  come  poco,  y  yo  no 
soy  traganton  en  demasia. 

Respondiole  el  huesped  que  no  tenia  polios,  porque  los  milanos  los  tenian 
asolados. 

— Pues  mande  el  senor  huesped — dijo  Sancho — asar  una  polla  que  sea  tierna. 

— I  Polla?  jMi  padre! — respondio  el  huesped. — En  verdad  en  verdad  que 
envie  ayer  a  la  ciudad  a  vender  mas  de  cincuenta;  pero,  fuera  de  pollas,  pida 
vuesa  merced  lo  que  quisiese. 

— Desa  manera-dijo  Sancho — ,  no  faltara  ternera,  6  cabrito. 

— En  casa,  por  ahora — respondio  el  huesped — ,  no  lo  hay,  porque  se  ha 
acabado ;  pero  la  semana  que  viene  lo  habra  de  sobra. 

— i  Medrados  estamos  con  eso !  — respondio  Sancho — .  Yo  pondre  que 
vienen  a  resumirse  todas  estas  faltas  en  las  sobras  que  debe  de  haber  de  tocino 
y  huevos. 

— i  Por  Dios — respondio  el  huesped  — que  es  gentil  relente  el  que  mi 
huesped  tiene!  Pues  hele  dicho  que  ni  tengo  pollas  ni  gallinas,  y  ^quiere  que 
tenga  huevos?  Discurra,  si  quisiere,  por  otras  delicadezas,  y  dejese  de  pedir 
gullurias. 

— Resolvamonos,  cuerpo  de  mi —  dijo  Sancho — ,  y  digame  finalmente  lo  que 
tiene,  y  dejese  de  discurrimientos,  senor  huesped. 

Dijo  el  ventero: 

— Lo  que  real  y  verdaderamente  tengo  son  dos  unas  de  vaca  que  parecen 
manos  de  ternera,  6  dos  manos  de  ternera  que  parecen  unas  de  vaca ;  estan 
cocidas,  con  sus  garbanzos,  cebollas  y  tocino,  y  la  hora  de  ahora  estan  diciendo: 
1  j  Comeme !     j  Comeme !  "    Don   Quijote,  part  ii,   chap.   lix. 


34  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

"'What  now  for  supper,  landlord?' 

"  ■  Hay  de  todo.     Everything  is  at  the  service  of  Vuestra  Merced/ 

" '  Give  me  then  a  roast  chicken,  and  a — ' 

" '  There  is  no  roast  chicken,  Senor,'  interrupted  the  inn-keeper, 
hanging  his  head  by  way  of  obeisance. 

"  '  Give  me  a  rabbit — with  his  feet  on — ' 

" '  No  rabbit,  Senor.'  And  the  inn-keeper  let  his  chops  fall  as 
well  as  his  head. 

" '  But  you  have  a  roast  pig — a  cut  of  cold  beef — mutton  cutlets 
— a  partridge — pigeon  pie?' 

"  The  mesonero  shook  his  head  at  each  question.  I  then  came 
to  a  full  stop,  thinking  it  better  to  give  the  poor  man  time  to  tell 
what  he  had  got."11 

Thus  it  happened  that  frequently  those  who  had  not  had  the 
foresight  to  provide  provisions  were  obliged  to  make  excursions 
into  the  neighborhood.  Irving  writes  in  1829:  "You  must  either 
bring  your  provisions  with  you  or  forage  for  them  through  the 
village.12  "Mrs.  Le  Vert  found  it  necessary  to  do  this  at  Temblique 
even  in  1855. 13  Revere  in  speaking  of  the  accomplishments  of  an 
attendant  he  took  with  him  on  his  journey  north,  says :  "  He  was, 
too,  versed  in  cooking  and  in  foraging, — no  mean  accomplishment 
in  Spain."14 

The  American  traveller's  impressions  of  the  meals  in  many  of 
the  inns  were  unfavorable.  The  rancid  oil  and  garlic  gave  no  little 
annoyance.  Arthur  Lee  writes  in  1777:  "The  Castilians  are  much 
of  the  complexion  of  the  Indians,  but  more  ill-favored,  and  their 
dirtiness  and  garlic  render  them  more  offensive  than  paint  and 

11  Pp.  347,  348.    Cf.  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  ii,  pp.  17,  18;  Ford,  p.  174. 
Spanish  writers  of  the  period  we  are  studying  speak  of  the  "  Hay  de  todo  " 

of  the  inn-keeper.    Flores  gives  the  following  conversation  between  a  traveller 

and  an  innkeeper: 

" '  l  Pero  aqui,  que  es  lo  que  hay  ? 

— Aqui  hay  de  todo,  respondio  con  orgullo  el  posad^ro/  " 

The  traveller  asks  for  ham,  eggs,  and  chicken  in  succession  but  is  told  each 

time  there  is  none.    Finally  the  inn-keeper  informs  him  "  Hay  aceite  y  sal  y 

ajos,  y  si  a  sus  mercedes  les  gusta  el  peregil  y  la  cebolla,  tambien  se  buscara/  " 

Flores,  vol.  i,  p.  3*5- 

12  Irving,  Letters,  vol.  ii,  p.  223.  Cf.  Irving,  Journals,  vol.  iii,  pp.  72,  74; 
Noah,  p.  168;  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  p.  277;  Scenes  in  Spain,  pp.  219,  220;  Bryant, 
p.  117;  Bourgoing,  vol.  i,  p.  3;  Ford,  p.  174- 

13  Vol.  ii,  p.  14. 
"  P.  70. 


Food  and  Beverages  35 

bear's  grease  do  the  savage."15  Hardly  had  Mrs.  Cushing  crossed 
the  frontier  in  1829  when  she  had  her  first  experience  with  these 
"cosas  espanolas."  She  was  at  Irun:  "I  learned,"  she  says,  "be- 
fore finishing  the  repast  that  I  should  be  obliged  to  acquire  a  taste 
for  them  [oil  and  garlic]  as  no  one  dish  came  on  the  table,  which 
was  not  cooked  in  oil,  or  seasoned  with  garlic."16  By  the  time  she 
had  reached  Fresnillo  she  was  beginning  to  acquire  a  taste  for 
them.  She  gives  an  interesting  description  of  the  preparation  of 
the  food  in  the  various  earthen  pots  and  jars  around  the  fire.  These 
dishes,  although  containing  plenty  of  oil  and  garlic,  she  finds  "  far 
from  unpalatable."  The  oil  soup,  however,  is  for  her  "disagree- 
able beyond  measure."17  Both  oil  and  garlic,  she  tells  us,  are  found 
in  almost  every  Spanish  dish.18  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  her  great 
distaste  at  first  for  these  two  ingredients,  she  becomes  later  very 
fond  of  Spanish  cooking.19  Another  American  found  the  oil  very 
offensive.  It  was  the  principal  ingredient  of  a  dinner  which  was 
served  him  at  Zaragoza.20  The  strong  oil  which  he  found  was  the 
chief  substitute  for  butter,  held  an  important  place,  he  observed,  in 
their  greasy  olios  and  pucheros.21  Wallis  writes  that  on  his  first 
visit  to  Spain  in  1847  ne  was  of  tne  impression  that  the  tales  of  the 
use  of  garlic  were  greatly  exaggerated  and  that  he  went  so  far  as 
to  say  that  it  was  never  served  him  in  "  fonda,  venta,  or  vento- 
rillo."22  On  his  next  visit,  however,  he  was  not  so  fortunate,  for 
it  was  served  him  even  in  the  capital.23  The  oil  and  garlic  nearly 
forced  Warren  into  starvation  during  his  first  days  in  Spain. 
Nevertheless,  he  evidently  became  accustomed  to  them  for  at  Tolosa 
he  ate  heartily  of  a  meal  highly  flavored  with  both.24  The  majority 
of  American  travellers  complain  more  or  less  at  first  of  the  oil  and 
garlic.    They  rarely  speak,  however,  in  such  strong  terms  as  Mac- 

15  Journal. 

16  Vol.  ii,  p.  5 ;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  20. 

17  Vol.  ii,  p.  37;  cf.  Mackie,  pp.  155,  156. 

18  Vol.  ii,  p.  53;  cf.  Ford,  pp.  57,  178,  179- 

19  Ibid.,  passim. 

20  Scenes  in  Spain,  p.  270. 

21  Ibid.,  p.  93. 

22  Wallis,  Glimpses  of  Spain,  p.  94. 
28  Spain,  pp.  9,  10. 

24  Pp.  21,  113. 


36  'American  Travellers  in  Spain 

coun  who  finds  the  Spanish  cuisine  "execrable"  because  of  these 
ingredients.  "Every  article  placed  before  you,"  he  says,  "is 
stewed,  and  strongly  impregnated  with  rancid  oil,  garlic,  saffron, 
and  red-pepper;  and  the  newly-arrived  stranger,  whose  stomach  is 
unaccustomed  to  such  high-flavored  condiments,  is  obliged  to  fall 
back  upon  boiled  eggs,  bread  and  cheese."25  March,  like  most 
American  travellers  in  Spain,  learned,  on  the  contrary,  to  like 
Spanish  cooking.  He  writes  of  the  national  dish :  "  I  grew  so 
enamored  of  it  that,  before  long,  the  pungent  garlic  with  which  it 
was  seasoned,  and  the  rancid  oil  with  which  it  was  accompanied, 
became  a  second  nature  to  me."26  The  following  narration  by  Noah 
of  his  own  experience  at  the  posada  of  Torreblanca  in  1814  is  rather 
an  exception: 

"We  arrived,  fatigued  and  hungry  in  the  evening  at  Torreblanca; 
the  Posada  was  none  of  the  best,  but  our  good  hostess,  willing  to 
prepare  something  for  supper,  seized  a  tough  dung-hill  cock,  de- 
capitated him  without  ceremony,  dissected  the  bird,  and  placed  the 
parts  in  an  earthen  dish,  and  with  onions  and  tomatoes ;  we  viewed 
the  ceremony,  of  cooking  the  same,  over  a  naffy  of  charcoal,  and 
the  addition  of  oil,  of  no  great  freshness,  which  was  poured  in  the 
dish  from  the  lamp  feeder,  sufficiently  cured  our  appetite,  without 
partaking  of  the  dish."27 

On  the  whole  the  Americans  seem  to  have  adapted  themselves 
more  easily  to  Spanish  dishes  than  did  either  the  English  or  the 
French.28  The  latter  were  especially  critical  of  the  food.  Accord- 
ing to  Pettigrew  a  breakfast  served  at  Aranda  one  morning  during 
his  travels  in  Spain  in  1859  was  the  cause  of  complaint  among  the 
French  passengers  of  the  diligence.  He,  however,  found  it  very 
palatable  although  it  was  well  flavored  with  garlic.29 

26  Knick.  Mag.,  vol.  xli,  pp.  08,  99. 
28  March,  p.  136. 

27  P.  176;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  182.  This  recalls  Ford's  statement  that  "the  oil  is 
used  indifferently  for  lamps  or  stews." 

28  Both  the  English  and  French  travellers  make  much  fun  of  the  oil  and 
vinegar.  Ford  compares  the  wine,  which  he  says  sometimes  serves  for  vinegar, 
to  purple  blacking.  He  says  the  table  is  plentiful  and  the  cooking  to  those  who 
like  oil  and  garlic  excellent.  Ford,  p.  57.  Garlic,  he  found  particularly  offen- 
sive to  the  English.  "The  very  name,  like  that  of  monk  is  enough  to  give 
offence  to  most  English."     Ibid.,  p.  178. 

29  Pettigrew,  p.  353. — In  the  opinion  of  Dumas  Spanish  oil  and  vinegar  spoil 


Food  and  Beverages  37 

Because  the  national  dish,  the  olla  or  the  so-called  puchero  in 
the  north  of  Spain,  contained  large  quantities  of  the  two  ingre- 
dients just  mentioned,  it  was  not  agreeable  at  first  to  the  taste  of 
many  American  travellers.  For  Maccoun  it  had  no  attractions.30 
The  majority  of  American  travellers,  however,  became  quite  as 
attached  to  it  as  did  the  Spaniard  and  not  infrequently  do  we  find 
them  choosing  it,  as  did  that  good  governor  Sancho  Panza,  in  pref- 
erence to  some  other  dish.31  Wallis  thinks  it  not  unworthy  the 
great  Sancho's  praise.32  Schroeder  found  the  olla  delicious.33 
Warren  in  1849  not  only  acquired  a  taste  for  it  but  considered  it 
a  "sublime  compound,  a  dish  worthy  of  being  devoured  by 
monarchs."34  Mackie,  after  acquiring  a  taste  for  the  olla  podrida, 
decided  it  was  one  of  the  two  really  good  things  in  the  country.35 
March,  whose  taste  for  the  national  dish  increased  daily,  says :  "  If 
any  day  I  was  obliged  to  forego  it,  in  travelling  or  otherwise,  I 
thought  with  the  Roman  Emperor,  'I  had  missed  a  day.' "36  He 
even  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  it  detained  him  three  months  in 
Spain. 

for  a  Frenchman  any  dish  of  which  they  are  a  part.  He  particularly  regretted 
on  his  visit  to  Spain  in  1846  that  these  two  ingredients  made  it  necessary  for  him 
to  renounce  the  pleasure  of  his  daily  salad.  "Mais  la  verdure  en  E&pagne 
n'avait  d'autres  resultats  que  de  nous  imposer  de  profonds  regrets,  puisque 
l'huile  et  le  vinaigre  espagnols  sont  si  loin  de  nos  moeurs  culinaires  que  je 
defie  a  un  Frangais  si  grand  amateur  qu'il  soit  de  laitue,  de  raiponce  ou  d'esca- 
role,  d'avaler  une  seule  bouchee  de  l'une  ou  de  l'autre  de  ces  herbes,  si  appe- 
tissantes  cependant  des  lors  qu'on  les  a  mises  en  contact  avec  l'un  ou  l'autre  des 
deux  liquides  que  nous  venons  d'enoncer."  Vol.  i,  p.  172;  cf.  vol.  i,  p.  235. — 
Ford,  to  the  contrary,  finds  the  salad  delicious.  Pp.  133,  134;  cf.  Captain  S.  S. 
Widdrington,  Spain  and  the  Spaniards  in  1843,  London,  1844,  vol.  i,  p.  236. 

80  He  writes :  "  The  famous  puchero  and  olla  may  be  very  savory  dishes  for 
the  Spaniard  but  for  one  accustomed  to  a  civilized  cuisine,  a  mixture  of  beef, 
bacon,  sausages,  beans,  cabbage,  carrots,  onions,  garlic,  pepper,  etc.,  etc.,  has  no 
attractions."    Knick.  Mag.,  vol.  xli,  p.  99. 

31  Sancho  gives  the  following  order  to  his  doctor :  "  Lo  que  el  maestresala 
puede  hacer  es  traerme  estos  que  llaman  ollas  podridas,  pue  mientras  mas 
podridas  son,  mejor  huelen,  y  en  ellas  puede  embaular  y  encerrar  todo  lo  que 
el  quisiere  como  sea  de  comer,  que  yo  se  lo  agradecere,  y  se  lo  pagare  algun 
dia."    Don  Quijote,  part  ii,  chap.  xlix. 

32  Glimpses  of  Spain,  p.  6. 

33  Vol.  ii,  p.  101 ;  cf.  Vassar,  p.  340. 
3*P.  114. 

35  P.  156. 

86  P.  136.    Cf.  ibid.,  p.  149;  Taylor,  pp.  429,  430. 


38  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

This  national  dish  is  frequently  described  by  American  travel- 
lers. Noah  writes:  "The  olio  [olla]  is  a  never  failing  Spanish 
dish;  this  consists  of  beef  and  pork,  steamed  down  with  cabbage, 
garravansas  [garbanzos]  or  large  peas,  together  with  other  vege- 
tables."37 Others  tell  us  it  contains  various  other  kinds  of  meat. 
In  fact  according  to  the  descriptions  given  there  seems  to  have  been 
as  much  diversity  in  the  contents  as  in  the  days  of  Sancho  Panza.38 

According  to  Mackenzie  the  more  elaborate  kind  of  olla  is 
called  olla  podrida.  Garbanzos  are  mentioned  as  common  to  all 
with  the  exception  of  a  puchero  containing  "  avichwelas  "  [habich- 
uelas]  which  Wallis  tells  us  was  served  him  at  Jerez.39  As  in  the 
days  of  Don  Quijote  it  was  "una  olla  de  algo  mas  vaca  que 
carnero."  Beef,  pork,  and  bacon  seem  to  have  been  the  common 
meats  of  those  described,  but  chicken,  kid  and  other  meats  are 
sometimes  mentioned.  Noah  who  travelled  in  Andalucia  says  mut- 
ton is  more  plentiful  than  beef  and  is  the  favorite  dish.40 

Up  to  the  sixties  the  olla  is  mentioned  by  nearly  every  Ameri- 
can traveller  in  Spain;  many  of  whom  give  long  descriptions  of  its 
composition  and  preparation  and  testify  to  its  popularity.41     In 

"P.  go;  cf.  Taylor,  p.  405. 

38  Speaking  of  ollas  Sancho  says :  "  Por  la  diversidad  de  cosas  que  en  las 
ollas  podridas  hay,  no  podre  dejar  de  topar  con  alguna  que  me  sea  de  gusto  y  de 
provecho."  Don  Quijote,  part  ii,  chap,  xlvii. — Spanish  writers  frequently  men- 
tion pigs'  feet  when  they  describe  the  composition  of  the  olla.  In  Breton  de  los 
Herreros   we   read: 

"  El  Artesano  aqui,  sin  esa  embrolla 
Que  exalta  y  fanatiza  al  de  Lutecia, 
Su  pitanza  asegura,  y  no  en  su  cholla 
Hierve  tanta  Utopia  horrible  6  necia. 
Al  oler  los  garbanzos  de  su  olla. 
Con  vaca  y  pie  de  puerco  y  fina  especia, 
De  buen  grado  algun  procer  exclamara; 
'  Aqui  estoy  yo,  maestro ;  una  cuchara ! ' " 

Manuel  Breton  de  los  Herreros,  La  Desverguenza,  Madrid,  1856,  p.  200. 

89  Glimpses  of  Spain,  p.  141. 

*°  P.  90. — As  in  the  days  of  the  Knight  of  La  Mancha,  beef  seems  to  have 
been  cheaper  than  mutton  when  Townsend  was  in  Spain  some  thirty  years 
previous.  Townsend  was  accustomed  to  enquire  the  prices  of  provisions  before 
leaving  a  city.  His  figures  like  those  of  Laborde  a  few  years  later  and  of  Inglis 
in  1830  show  a  lower  price  of  beef  as  compared  with  that  of  mutton. 

41  English  and  French  travellers  also  testify  to  its  universal  use.  Ford  de- 
scribes it  at  length  and  informs  us  that  it  is  well  made  only  in  "  well  appointed 
Andalusian   houses."     Pp.   123,    124,   125;   cf.   Borrow,  vol.    i,   p.    I33-— Gautier 


Food  and  Beverages  39 

spite  of  its  popularity  with  the  natives  and  the  American  travellers, 
the  demands  for  roast  beef  by  the  English  and  the  demands  for 
nothing  less  than  the  cuisine  frangaise  by  the  French  caused  it 
gradually  to  disappear  from  the  table  of  the  inns  along  the  beaten 
track  of  travel.  With  the  mantilla  and  the  Spanish  dances  it  grad- 
ually lost  its  honored  place  so  that  by  the  sixties  we  find  it  seldom 
mentioned  by  travellers.  With  the  general  impulse  felt  in  the 
country  from  the  thirties  on,  foreign  dishes  began  to  take  the  place 
of  native  dishes  at  inns  most  frequented  by  foreigners.  Accord- 
ing to  Mackie  the  fondas  were  already  getting  ashamed  of  the 
national  dish  in  185 1.  He  says:  "Half  a  century  hence  the  travel- 
ler will  be  obliged  to  descend  to  the  ventorrillo  to  get  a  taste  of  it."42 
Eight  years  later  Pettigrew  was  impressed  with  the  posada  at 
Lucena,  which,  as  it  was  not  often  frequented  by  strangers,  was  of 
native  simplicity  and  served  a  real  olla. 

u  The  posada  being  seldom  visited  by  foreigners,  was  in  the  prim- 
itive style,  none  the  worse,  however,  for  that,  as  we  at  least,  were 
not  imposed  upon  in  the  cuisine;  no  boiled  beef  broiled  up  into 
steaks  but  a  real  olla  and  huevos  con  jamon."4* 

At  a  small  village  in  Catalufia  where  Mills  was  detained  over  night 
in  1865  because  of  a  flooded  stream,  chops  were  served  the  guests 
but  the  family  had  olla  podrida.4* 

Mrs.  Cushing  was  favorably  impressed  with  the  guisado  al- 
though some  of  the  other  travellers  recalling  Gil  Bias  looked  on  it 
somewhat  suspiciously.45  Gazpacho,  a  very  primitive  dish  com- 
posed of  water,  vinegar,  salt  and  oil  into  which  bread  was  broken 
was  sometimes  served  the  traveller  in  Andalucia.46  The  salad,  so 
disliked  by  the  French,  seems  to  have  met  the  approval  of  the 

found  it  in  1840  the  "  mets  eminemment  espagnol,  ou  plutot  l'unique  mets 
espagnol  car  on  en  mange  tous  les  jours  d'lrun  a  Cadiz,  et  reciproquement." 
Pp.  23,  24. — It  is  also  frequently  mentioned  by  Spanish  writers.  Cf.  Larra,  p. 
39 ;  La  Desverguenza,  p.  296. 

42  Mackie,  p.  155. 

43  P.  287. 

44  P.  133. 

45  Vol.  ii,  p.  277.  Cf.  Caleb  Cushing,  vol.  i,  p.  107 ;  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  ii, 
p.  18;  Spain  revisited,  vol.  ii,  p.  64;  Mackie,  p.  154;  Ford,  pp.  123,  131,  175. 

46  Cf.  Noah,  p.  166;  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  ii,  pp.  176,  227;  Scenes  in  Spain, 
p.  121;  Ford,  p.  134;  Gautier,  p.  268. 


,-■■. 

40  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

American  traveller  as  well  as  that  of  the  English.47  The  polio  con 
aroz  which  one  American  finds  excellent  is  seldom  even  mentioned.48 
Bacalao  was  still  served  as  it  was  at  the  first  inn  where  Don  Quijote 
stopped  when  he  started  out  in  search  of  adventures.49  Humphreys 
writes  in  1791 : 

"  At  the  public  houses  on  the  roads  at  a  considerable  distance  from 
the  sea,  codfish  from  America  is  plentier  and  cheaper  than  other 
goods  that  are  to  be  found.  This  seems  the  more  strange  as  the 
droves  of  cattle,  herds  of  swine  and  flocks  of  sheep  are  apparently 
numerous  and  excellent."50 

If  the  American  traveller  did  not  look  with  a  favorable  eye  on  this 
dish,  which  was  placed  before  him  not  infrequently  at  poor  ventas, 
he  found,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  trout  were  excellent.51  In 
fact  he  was  quite  as  pleased  with  a  dish  of  trout  as  was  Gil  Bias' 
flattering  guest  at  the  supper  in  the  meson  at  Pefiaflor. 

The  famous  ham  of  the  Alpuj arras  receives  words  of  praise 
from  American  travellers  in  general.  Woodruff  describing  an  ex- 
cellent dinner  he  had  at  Almeria  December  9,  1828,  says: 

"Among  the  variety  of  viands,  wines,  and  fruit,  at  this  excellent 
dinner,  was  a  Granada  mountain  ham,  so  much  esteemed  by  the 
gourmands  of  France  and  England.  It  is  cured  in  snow  and  sugar 
without  smoke,  and  with  little  or  no  salt.  It  is  known  abroad  by 
the  name  of  sweet  ham."52 

The  bellotas  on  which  the  swine  feed  and  which  is  supposed  to 

*7  Noah,  Mackenzie,  Wallis,  Mills,  Widdrington,  Ford  and  others  speak  of 
it  in  favorable  terms. 

*8C/.  Traces  of  the  Roman  and  Moor,  p.  418;  Mackie,  p.  343;  Ford,  p.  131. 

49  Francis  Landon  Humphreys,  Life  and  times  of  David  Humphreys,  New 
York  and  London,  1917,  vol.  ii,  p.  86;  Baker,  pp.  25,  184;  Traces. of  the  Roman 
and  Moor,  p.  321;  March,  p.  212;  Nat.  Mag.,  vol.  xi,  p.  360. 

bo  Vol.  ii,  p.  86. 

81  Cf.  Revere,  pp.  61,  63;  March,  pp.  232,  268,  305,  330;  Bryant,  pp.  71,  87, 
158;  Pettigrew,  p.  368;  Ford,  pp.  21,  28. — The  well  known  English  traveller, 
Widdrington,  already  referred  to,  recommends  the  delicious  trout  of  Castilla  la 
Vieja  and  Leon.  Spain  and  the  Spaniards  in  1843,  vol.  ii,  p.  74.— Even  Gautier 
found  the  trout  a  really  excellent  dish  in  Spain.     Gautier,  p.  141. 

62  Pp.  255,  256.  Cf.  Revere,  p.  55;  March,  p.  422;  Mackie,  p.  153;  Petti- 
grew, pp.  281,  287.— Even  Mrs.  Byrne  says  that  it  is  not  difficult  to  approve 
jamon  con  dulces  although  he  finds  it  somewhat  incongruous  to  an  English 
palate.    Vol.  ii,  pp.  162,  163;  cf.  Ford,  pp.  129,  130. 


Food  and  Beverages  41 

give  to  the  meat  its  excellent  flavor  are  mentioned  by  a  few  Ameri- 
cans.53 One  recalls  the  gift  of  these  which  Sancho  Panza  sent  to 
his  wife  Teresa,  another  remembers  that  Sancho  was  a  great  lover 
of  the  bellota,  but,  strange  to  say,  only  one  mentions  the  fact  that 
it  was  a  handful  of  these  nuts  that  called  forth  that  famous  speech 
which  Don  Quijote  made  to  the  goatherds  after  enjoying  their 
hospitality.54 

The  turron  of  Alicante,  that  of  Jijona,  the  preserves,  the  fruits 
and  nuts,  all  receive  their  share  of  praise  from  the  American 
traveller.55 

Until  well  toward  the  middle  of  the  century,  the  American  in 
Spain  was  impressed  with  the  absence  of  both  tea  and  coffee. 
Adams,  to  be  sure,  mentions  drinking  tea  in  a  private  family,  but 
this  seems  to  have  been  a  mark  of  attention  to  him,  and  even  on  this 
occasion  the  ladies  drank  chocolate.56  Neither  of  these  beverages 
was  known  generally  in  the  Peninsula  when  Jay  took  some  tea 
among  other  provisions  for  the  journey  from  Cadiz  to  Madrid  in 
1780.  Mrs.  Cushing  in  one  of  her  letters  from  Spain  in  1830  says 
that  if  tea  and  coffee  are  not  absolutely  unknown  in  the  whole  of 
Spain  they  are  at  least  so  scarce  that  few  are  able  to  buy  them.57 
An  American  who  about  this  time  went  ashore  at  Barcelona  from 
the  frigate  Constellation  was  impressed  with  the  Spanish  custom  in 
the  cafes  of  mixing  spirits  with  the  coffee.  He  describes  as  follows 
a  scene  in  a  cafe  on  the  Rambla : 

83  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  25;  March,  p.  208;  Bryant,  p.  115;  Pettigrew, 
pp.  34,  281,  304.     Cf.  Swinburne,  p.  85;  Ford,  p.  127. 

54  Cf.  Don  Quijote,  part  i,  chap.  xi. 

55  Adams,  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  233;  Noah,  pp.  90,  176;  Woodruff,  pp.  236,  255; 
Caleb  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  pp.  274,  275,  278;  Joseph  Hart,  The  Romance  of  Yachting, 
New  York,  1848,  p.  277;  Mackie,  pp.  153,  154;  [Mrs.  James  L.  Claghorn],  Letters 
written  to  my  son,  Philadelphia,  1873,  p.  199;  and  many  others  speak  favorably 
of  these.  The  melon  is  frequently  mentioned  as  of  a  very  fine  variety.  It  pleased 
Jay  so  much  that  he  sent  seeds  of  it  to  America. 

56  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  240. 

67  Vol.  ii,  p.  52.— Ford,  a  little  later,  was  impressed  with  the  same  fact. 
Tea  and  coffee,  he  says,  have  supplanted  chocolate  in  England  and  France  but 
not  in  Spain.  Ford,  p.  143. — Gautier  nearly  ten  years  later  was  likewise  im- 
pressed with  its  rare  use.     "  Au  reste  il  est  d'un  usage  assez  rare."     P.  99. 


42  'American  Travellers  in  Spain 


"We  were  ushered  into  a  large  room  furnished  with  a  great 
number  of  small  marble  tables,  around  which  were  seated  some 
dozen  of  groups  who  were  engaged  in  loud  conversation,  and  were 
allaying  by  means  of  a  cup  of  strong  coffee,  the  fumes  of  the  wine 
with  which  they  had  washed  down  their  dinner. 

"  Our  tragedian  sung  out  for  cuatro  tazas  de  cafe,  which  were 
forthwith  brought  in,  and  a  small  decanter  of  liquor  was  placed 
upon  the  table  at  the  same  time.  Many  of  the  Spaniards  mix  spirits 
with  their  coffee."58 

It  was  not,  however,  until  some  years  after  the  death  of  Ferdi- 
nand VII  when  the  doors  of  Spain  were  thrown  open  to  the  world 
and  foreign  influence  both  social  and  political  entered,  that  the  cus- 
tom of  drinking  tea  and  coffee  was  really  introduced  into  the 
country.  With  increased  liberty  came  an  increase  in  travel  and 
with  this  increase  in  travel  a  catering  to  the  wishes  of  the  traveller, 
which  meant  tea  for  the  English,  coffee  for  the  French,  and  both 
for  the  American.59  The  use  of  tea  as  well  as  coffee  increased 
although  slowly  from  the  later  forties  on.  At  Jerez  in  1847  Wallis 
was  given  tea  by  his  landlady.60  March  tells  us  that  in  1853  it  was 
a  frequent  sight  to  see  the  Gaditanos  taking  their  coffee  or  chocolate 
on  the  flat  roof  of  the  house.61  According  to  Bryant,  however, 
neither  coffee  nor  tea  was  in  common  use  when  he  was  in  Spain 
four  years  later.  He  writes  from  Malaga,  December,  1857 :  "  Those 
who  take  coffee  drink  it  at  the  cafes,  as  an  occasional  refreshment, 
just  as  they  take  an  ice  cream ;  and  the  use  of  tea,  though  on  the 
increase,  is  by  no  means  common."62 

Although  the  custom  of  drinking  tea  and  coffee  had  been  gradu- 
ally introduced  into  different  parts  of  the  country  both  were  usually 
badly  made.     Wallis  says  that  at  Cordoba  in  1847  the  people  were 

68  P.  216.— Gautier  about  ten  years  later  was  impressed  with  the  fact  that 
coffee  was  not  taken  in  cups  but  in  glasses.  "  Le  cafe  ne  se  prend  pas  dans  des 
tasses  mais  bien  dans  des  verres."    P.  99. 

89  A  Spanish  writer  of  that  time  writes  that  the  history  of  tea  in  Spain  is 
the  history  of  the  social  and  political  regeneration  of  the  country.  "  La  historia 
del  te  en  Espana  es  la  historia  de  nuestra  regeneration  social  y  politica.  .  .  .  Su 
importation  de  la  China  y  su  uso  y  su  abuso,  son  la  historia  del  uso  y  el  abuso 
de  nuestras  libertades."    Flores,  vol.  iii,  p.  262. 

60  Glimpses  of  Spain,  p.  150. 

61  P.  140. 
82  P.  177.    Cf.  ibid.,  p.  127;  Mills,  p.  153. 


Food  and  Beverages  43 

amused  when  he  ordered  tea.  He  adds  "  they  seemed  to  think  it  a 
much  better  joke  than  I  did  when  I  tried  it."63  Warren  observes 
in  1849  that  coffee  is  seldom  taken  by  Spaniards  and  finds  that  even 
in  Madrid  one  cannot  get  it  well  made.  So  difficult  was  it  to  get 
either  tea  or  coffee  well  prepared  that  foreigners  were  obliged  to 
substitute  chocolate.64  Mrs.  Claghorn  found  both  tea  and  coffee 
bad  at  Cadiz  in  i866.65>66 

If  good  coffee  and  tea  were  lacking  there  was  always  excellent 
chocolate.  The  American  traveller  not  only  learned  to  take  this 
instead  of  his  favorite  beverage,  but  also  became  very  fond  of  it. 
Hardly  one  of  them  fails  to  expatiate  on  its  perfections.  Adams 
writes  in  his  diary  at  El  Ferrol,  December  10,  1779:  "Breakfasted 
on  Spanish  chocolate,  which  answers  the  fame  it  has  acquired  in 
the  world."67  On  December  22,  he  describes  the  serving  of  choco- 
late to  some  ladies  at  a  private  house  to  which  he  was  invited : 

"A  servant  brought  in  a  salver,  with  a  number  of  tumblers  of 
clean,  clear  glass,  full  of  cold  water,  and  a  plate  of  cakes  which 
were  light  pieces  of  sugar.  Each  lady  took  a  tumbler  of  water  and 
a  piece  of  sugar,  dipped  her  sugar  in  her  tumbler  of  water,  eat  the 
one,  and  drank  the  other.     The  servant  then  brought  in  another 

63  Glimpses  of  Spain,  p.  254. 
e*  Pp.  84,  85. 

65  P.  195. 

66  Mrs.  Byrne  in  Spain  about  the  same  time  criticizes  the  coffee  as  she  does 
things  Spanish  in  general.  "  A  little  Spartan  sauce,"  she  says,  "  is  by  no  means 
a  despicable  addition  to  a  Spanish  meal,  and  the  coffee  was  scarcely  such  as  to 
have  been  relished  without  it."  Vol.  i,  pp.  67,  68;  cf.  ibid.,  pp.  107,  183.— Accord-j 
ing  to  her  the  use  of  coffee  had  greatly  increased  by  1866.  She  writes:  " Cafi 
noir  and  cafe  au  lait  are  very  extensively  consumed,  and  it  is  therefore  all  the 
more  inexplicable  why  coffee  should  be  so  indifferent  in  quality."  Pages  67, 
68;  cf.  ibid.,  pp.  107,  183,  184. — The  custom  of  drinking  tea  was  adopted  even 
more  slowly  than  that  of  coffee.  This  was  due  in  a  great  measure  no  doubt  to 
the  cost  which  in  1866  was  from  $1.80  per  pound  upwards.  Mrs.  Byrne  says: 
"  It  is  to  be  had  at  the  cafes,  but  it  is  only  asked  for  by  such  as  wish  to  pass 
for  having  attained  advanced  ideas."  Ibid.,  pp.  67,  68;  cf.  ibid.,  pp.  107,  183. 
And  so  it  seemed  to  Flores  who  writes  in  1863:  "El  gran  tono  es  el  te,  ya  le 
hemos  dicho."  Vol.  iii,  p.  272.—"  Yo,  te  aseguro  lector,"  says  Flores  in  another 
place,  "  aunque  me  tengas  por  demasiado  sentimental  y  romantico,  que  no 
puedo  sorber,  una  taza  de  te  sin  pensar  en  las  conquistas  de  la  civilization,  ni 
aspirar  el  aroma  de  sus  hojas,  sin  sentir  los  aromas  del  arbol  de  la  libertad." 
P.  262. 

67  Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  232. 


44  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

salver,  of  cups  of  hot  chocolate.  Each  lady  took  a  cup  and  drank 
it,  and  then  cakes  and  bread  and  butter  were  served ;  then  each  lady 
took  another  cup  of  cold  water,  and  here  ended  the  repast."08 

Jarvis  on  one  of  his  voyages  to  Spain  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  favorably  impressed  by  the  chocolate  that 
was  served  him  at  a  private  house  in  San  Sebastian.69  Noah  in 
1814  considers  it  the  only  thing  that  is  made  better  in  Spain  than 
in  any  other  country.70  Warren  in  1847  is  of  the  same  opinion.71 
Schroeder  tells  us  of  the  delicious  chocolate  served  him  in  the 
posada  at  Loja  in  1844.72  Mackie  finds  the  chocolate  one  of  the 
two  good  things  in  the  country.  For  him  it  is  "  una  de  las  delicias 
espanolas."  ■  "  Hot,  and  foamy,  and  purple,"  he  describes  it  in  his 
usual  genial  style  when  speaking  of  Spain,  "  it  solaces  the  whole 
inner  man.  It  satisfies  at  the  same  time  the  longings  of  the  stomach 
and  of  the  soul.,,T3  The  preparation  of  the  chocolate  impressed 
some  of  the  earlier  travellers  who  stopped  at  small  inns  where  the 
kitchen  was  the  general  gathering  place  of  all.  The  chocolate  is 
described  as  a  composition  of  cocoa,  sugar  and  cinnamon  made  into 
cakes.  Mackenzie  says :  "  To  prepare  the  usual  portion  for  one 
person,  an  ounce  is  thrown  into  three  times  its  weight  of  water  and, 
when  dissolved  by  heat  it  is  stirred  by  means  of  a  piece  of  wood 
turned  rapidly  between  the  palms  of  the  hands  until  the  whole  has 
a  frothy  consistency."74    In  the  northern  part  of  the  country  during 

e6Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  240. 

69  Mrs.  M.  Pepperrell  Sparhawk  Cutts,  Life  and  times  of  Hon.  W.  Jarvis, 
New  York,  1869,  p.  102. 

™  P.  90. 

7i  P.  84;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  126. 

72  Vol.  ii,  p.  1 13 ;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  1 1 1 ;  Knick.  Mag.,  vol.  xix,  p.  123. 

78  P.  157. — Although  the  French  travellers  had  less  to  say  about  the  choco- 
late than  did  those  from  the  United  States,  they  spoke  of  it  in  terms  of  ap- 
proval. Even  Dumas  who  makes  much  fun  of  Spanish  cooking  calls  the 
asucarillos  and  chocolate  excellent.  "  Tout  cela,"  he  says  referring  to  them, 
"etait  d'une  qualite  superieure."  Dumas,  vol.  i,  pp.  42,  43- — The  English  travel- 
ler accustomed  to  carry  his  tea  with  him  wherever  he  went  probably  depended 
less  on  the  chocolate  than  did  those  of  other  nationalities  and  for  this  reason 
has  less  to  say  about  it.  Mrs.  Byrne,  however,  who  praises  very  little  that  is 
Spanish  finds  it  excellent  but  she  adds  that  it  is  much  too  substantial  for  a 
beverage."    Vol.  i,  p.  184;  cf.  Ford,  p.  57- 

74  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  63.  Cf.  Spain  revisited,  vol.  ii,  p.  64 ;  C.  E. 
Cushing,  vol.  ii,  p.  5. 


Food  and  Beverages  45 

the  latter  years  of  the  period  we  are  studying  it  was  made  very  thin 
in  the  French  manner,  but  in  other  parts  of  the  country  the  deli- 
cious thick  kind,  the  delight  of  the  American  traveller,  was  still 
served.75 

As  to  the  manner  of  serving  the  chocolate,  there  seems  to  be  a 
difference  of  opinion.  Noah,  in  18 14,  found  it  served  in  tumblers, 
but  the  majority  of  the  travellers  seem  to  have  been  impressed  by 
the  small  size  of  the  cups  in  which  it  was  served.78  Nearly  all 
mention  the  custom  of  serving  large  tumblers  of  water  with  it.77 
The  curious  way  of  taking  the  chocolate  by  dipping  slender  sponge 
cakes  or  long  slices  of  bread  into  the  thick  liquid  attracted  the 
attention  of  several  travellers.78 

During  the  whole  of  the  period  we  are  studying  chocolate  was 
the  universal  morning  beverage,  and  was  taken  frequently  in  the 
evening  as  well.  It  was  drunk  in  the  home,  at  the  hotel,  in  the 
poorest  venta  and  even  on  the  road.78a  Mrs.  Cushing  relates  that 
once  when  she  was  the  only  woman  present,  for  the  venta  was 
kept  by  men,  she  was  served  chocolate  in  the  morning.  Noah 
speaks  of  taking  chocolate  in  the  "  Nevareas  or  chocolate  houses."79 
Warren  took  chocolate  in  "  confiterias."89  In  fact  chocolate  was 
taken  everywhere.81  Vassar  in  1853  noted  that  it  could  always  be 
procured  throughout  Spain.82  According  to  Bryant  it  was  still  the 
universal  beverage  when  he  visited  the  country  in  1857.83  But  with 
the  inrush  of  foreigners,  the  use  of  coffee  and  tea,  as  already  stated, 

75  Pettigrew,  p.  364.  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  354 ;  Knick.  Mag.,  vol.  xix,  p.  123 ;  Bryant, 
p.  177 ;  Ticknor,  Life,  vol.  i,  p.  187. 

76  Dumas  says  they  take  their  chocolate  in  thimbles.  Dumas,  vol.  i,  p.  70; 
cf.  Ford,  p.  143. 

77  Cf.  Ford,  p.  143. 

78  Cf.  Noah,  p.  90;  Scenes  in  Spain,  p.  223;  Warren,  p.  84;  Bryant,  pp.  127, 
177. 

78aC/.  Revere,  p.  56;  Wallis,  Glimpses  of  Spain,  p.  254,  276;  Ford,  pp.  57, 
143. — Ford  says  chocolate  is  to  the  Spaniard  what  tea  is  to  a  Briton  and  what 
coffee  is  to  a  Gaul.    Ford,  p.  142. 

79  P.  90. — Noah  no  doubt  means  neverias.  He  frequently  misspells  Spanish 
words  or  uses  them  incorrectly. 

80  P.  84. 

81  Even  Ford  writes :  "  It  is  to  be  had  almost  everywhere  and  is  always 
excellent."     P.  142. 

82  P.  328. 

83  P.  177. 


46  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

was  increasing.  With  other  "  cosas  de  Espana,"  chocolate  was 
giving  way  to  the  influence  from  without.  Its  power  was  decreased 
in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  the  social  and  political  changes  in  the 
country.    In  the  sixties,  it  no  longer  reigns  alone.83a 

Although  the  American  traveller  had  often  to  do  without  his 
accustomed  cup  of  tea  or  coffee,  he  generally  found  an  abundance  of 
pure,  cool  water  to  drink.  The  Spaniard's  fondness  for  water 
(evidenced  by  the  prominent  place  given  to  the  alcarraza  in  the 
street,  at  every  diligence-  or  railroad-station,  in  the  home  and  in 
every  inn,  as  well  as  by  the  numerous  fountains),  the  sound  of  run- 
ning water  so  common  in  Andalucia,  and  the  familiar  cry  of  the 
water  carrier  "Agua  fresca,  fria  como  la  nieve" — all  this  greatly 
impressed  the  American  traveller.835 

Nor  was  the  American  traveller  less  struck  by  the  sight  of  the 
bota,  that  common  appendage  of  every  conveyance  in  Spain.830  Less 
critical  of  the  wine  than  the  English  or  French  he  was  ever  ready 
to  take  his  turn  at  the  bota  during  the  long  journey  or  at  the  country 
inn.  Unlike  some  English  travellers  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
noticed  any  disagreeable  flavor  from  the  pitch  lining  of  the  skin. 
Mackie,  however,  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  most  American  travel- 
lers in  Spain,  finds  the  ordinary  wine  of  the  country  too  sweet  when 
new  and  too  rough  when  old.83d  The  common  wine  seems  to  have 
been  the  Valdepenas.  It  is  frequently  mentioned  by  American 
travellers  in  Spain  as  an  excellent  wine  of  a  rich  color  and  the  com- 

88aFlores  writes  in  1863.  "Hoy,  Dios  gracias,  aunque  no  reina  y  gobierna, 
porque  el  sistema  constitucional  no  consiente  estos  poderes  ambidiestros,  reina 
a  medios  con  los  otros  dos  poderes,  el  te  y  el  cafe.  Su  nombre  ha  pasado  a  la 
posteridad  con  los  de  esos  otros  dos  colegas,  y  algo  es  algo."  Flores,  vol.  iii, 
p.  273. 

83bC/.  Noah,  p.  90;  Channing,  p.  489;  Woodruff,  p.  255;  Irving,  Journals, 
vol.  iii,  p.  78;  Byrne,  vol.  i,  p.  85;  Ford,  p.  138.  Ford  says  that  every  posada 
has  rows  of  water  jars  at  the  entrance,  and  that  the  first  thing  every  one  does 
on  entering  is  to  drink.    Ford,  p.  140. 

83c  Ford  speaks  at  length  of  the  bota.  He  agrees  with  the  American  as  to 
its  universal  use.  "A  Spanish  woman,"  says  Ford,  "would  as  soon  think  of 
going  to  church  without  her  fan  or  a  Spanish  man  to  a  fair  without  a  knife,  as 
a  traveller  without  his  bota."    Ford,  p.  07. 

83d  P.  162.  Cf.  Revere,  p.  61 ;  Taylor,  p.  428. — Mrs.  Byrne  is  much  more 
severe  in  her  criticism :  "  As  for  the  vin  comun,"  she  says,  "  it  is  as  inferior  to 
the  vin  ordinaire  of  France  as  ditch-water  is  to  Stogumber  ale."  Byrne,  vol.  i, 
p.   xxix. 


Food  and  Beverages  47 

mon  beverage  of  the  country.  Mrs.  Le  Vert  considered  that  placed 
before  them  in  Valdepefias  worthy  to  be  set  before  an  emperor.886 

That  sanitary  fashion  of  taking  the  wine  by  holding  the  bota  at 
arms'  length  and  allowing  a  stream  to  flow  into  the  mouth,  struck 
nearly  every  American  traveller  and  some  even  learned  to  take  long 
draughts  in  this  manner.84 

The  sherry  wine  seems  to  have  been  in  quite  as  good  favor  with 
the  American  travellers  as  with  Falstaff.85  Van  Ness  used  it  in 
Spain  and  had  it  sent  to  his  brother  in  the  United  States.86 

A  beverage  which  Warren  calls  the  "national  agraz,"  made 
from  unfermented  grape  juice,  receives  his  highest  praise.  "  The 
gods  themselves,"  he  says,  "  never  drank  anything  on  a  hot  day, 
more  invigorating  and  delicious."87 

Besides  these  beverages  American  travellers  found  most  excel- 
lent the  refreshing  naranjada  of  Andalucia.     A  variety  of  helados, 

83e  Speaking  of  the  inn  at  which  they  stopped,  she  says:  "In  place  of 
water,  upon  the  table  there  were  large  earthen  vessels  filled  with  this  rich 
fruity  wine,  worthy  of  a  place  at  the  banquet  of  an  emperor."  Le  Vert,  vol.  ii, 
p.  13. — Ford  calls  it  the  "  generous  Valdepenas  or  the  rich  vino  de  Toro."  An 
occasional  smell  of  a  bota  of  this  is  refreshing  to  the  nostrils,  according  to 
Ford.  "  There  the  racy  wine  perfume  lingers,  and  brings  water  into  the  mouth, 
it  may  be  into  the  eyelids."  Ford,  p.  07;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  147. — Swinburne  wrote 
nearly  a  half  a  century  before :  "  The  Val  de  Perns  produces  a  very  pleasant 
red  wine,  the  most  drinkable,  for  common  use,  of  any  in  Spain."  Swinburne, 
p  319. — Mrs.  Byrne,  to  the  contrary  disliked  this  wine.  She  says  "  the  Val  de 
Penas,  which  is  thought  so  much  of  in  England,  and  really  is  a  different  article, 
is,  here  rather  inferior  to  liquorice  tea!  besides  being  flavoured  with  pitch  and 
undressed  goatskins."  Byrne,  vol.  i,  p.  xxix;  cf.  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  161,  162; 
Ford,  p.  57. — Ford,  about  thirty  years  before,  was  of  quite  a  different  opinion. 
"  Very  little  pure  Valdepefias,"  says  Ford,  "  ever  reaches  England ;  the  numer- 
ous vendors'  bold  assertions  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding."     Ford,  p.  149. 

84  Noah,  p.  134;  C.  E.  Cushing,  vol.  ii,  pp.  175,  176;  Mackie,  p.  163;  Mills, 
p.  135.    Cf.  Swinburne,  pp.  7,  8;  Ford,  p.  98;  Townsend,  vol.  i,  p.  92. 

85  Mrs.  Byrne,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Valdepenas,  does  not  find  it  to  be  as 
good  as  in  England.    Byrne,  vol.  i,  pp.  xxiv,  xxx. 

86  The  Van  Buren  papers,  vol.  x,  March  17,  1830. — Van  Ness  writes  to  Van 
Buren  from  Madrid,  March  17,  1830:  "I  will  thank  you  to  tell  my  brother  that 
I  will  write  him  particularly  in  a  few  days,  and  that  I  have  sent  orders  to  Xeres 
to  have  two  quarter  casks  of  the  best  sherry  wine  shipped  for  him,  one  of  the 
pale  and  one  of  the  brown  colour."  He  offers  to  send  the  same  to  Van  Buren. 
He  says  the  price  of  the  first  class  is  about  $90  the  quarter  (30  gallons)  and  of 
the  second  class  which  he  uses  $75.    Ibid. 

87  P.  85. 


48  'American  Travellers  in  Spain 

the  horchata  de  chufas  and  the  boisson  d'amandes  blanches  did  not 
fail  to  satisfy  the  palate  of  even  the  French.88 

American  travellers  found  it  quite  as  difficult  to  procure  cows' 
milk  as  they  did  tea  and  coffee.  The  universal  custom  of  using 
goats'  milk  and  the  lack  of  suitable  pasturage  for  cows  in  many 
localities,  we  are  told,  made  it  a  rare  and  expensive  luxury  enjoyed 
by  few.  We  are  informed  in  Scenes  in  Spain  that  cows'  milk  is 
little  used  in  183 1.  However,  with  the  improved  facilities  of  trans- 
portation and  the  increase  in  the  number  of  foreigners  traveling  in 
the  country  bringing  new  ideas  and  new  demands,  its  use  was  intro- 
duced more  generally.  By  1849,  along  with  other  innovations,  had 
come  the  casas  de  vacas.  Many  signs  of  these  accompanied  by  the 
illustration  of  a  cow  being  milked  soon  struck  the  eye  of  the  traveller 
as  he  passed  along  the  principal  streets  of  Madrid.  The  milking, 
Wallis  tells  us,  took  place  while  the  customer  waited,  if  he  so 
requested.89  In  spite  of  these  casas  de  vacas  Pettigrew  finds  milk 
rare  in  1859.90 

Instead  of  cows'  milk  that  of  sheep,  asses,  and  goats  seems  to 
have  been  in  general  use  throughout  the  country.91  Many  an 
American  traveller  found  this  milk  very  unpleasant  to  the  taste. 
Pettigrew,  on  the  contrary,  found  it  quite  agreeable.92  Noah  was 
struck  by  the  sight  of  a  flock  of  goats  going  from  patio  to  patio  in 
the  early  morning  to  be  milked  while  the  customer  waited.  He 
found  the  milk  rich  and  healthy. 

"  Milk  is  obtained  from  goats ;  large  flocks  are  seen,  with  their 
drivers,  at  day  break;  the  tinkling  of  their  bells  disturbs  the  morn- 

88  Ford,  however,  considered  these  too  sweet.    P.  144. 

89  Wallis,  Spain,  p.  334. — Suspicious  as  usual  of  Spanish  things,  Mrs.  Bryne 
thinks  it  hardly  safe  to  purchase  milk  here  unless  one  can  witness  the  milking. 
Byrne,  vol.  i,  p.  204. 

90  Pettigrew,  p.  296.  Cf.  Bryant,  p.  89 ;  Claghorn,  p.  199. — According  to  Mrs. 
Byrne  it  was  a  favorite  beverage  in  1861  at  the  capital  where  the  casas  de  vacas 
were  numerous.  Byrne,  vol.  i,  p.  204. — At  the  cafes,  she  was  struck  by  the  sight 
of  men  sipping  milk  while  smoking  cigars.    Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  183. 

91  Cf.  Ford,  p.  74. 

92  P.  286. — None,  however,  praise  it  as  does  the  English  traveller,  Wid- 
drington,  who  drank  it  almost  exclusively  during  his  travels  in  Estremadura. 
He  says:  "We  drank  little  wine,  and  abundance  of  goats'  milk,  that  is  not  only 
the  best  in  the  world,  but  superior  to  any  other  milk  I  ever  tasted."  Spain  and 
the  Spaniards  in  1843,  vol.  i,  p.  236. 


Food  and  Beverages  49 

ing  nap;  the  driver  brings  them  into  the  patio  of  the  house,  and  the 
milk  is  received  into  the  vessel,  fresh  from  the  goat,  which  is  rich, 
and  healthy,  and  also  a  great  article  of  trade."93 

Wallis  was  impressed  by  a  similar  daily  scene  at  the  capital  in  1849. 
The  goats  after  spending  the  whole  day  in  the  surrounding  hills 
were  brought  into  the  city  by  the  goatherd.    The  author  says : 

"As  they  go  to  the  houses  of  their  customers,  the  maids  run  out 
with  their  milk-vessels  in  search  of  the  evening  supply.  The  goat- 
herd seizes  the  nearest  of  the  flock,  and  proceeds  to  business  in  the 
middle  of  the  street,  while  the  rest  of  his  company,  immediately 
conscious  of  a  pause  in  the  march,  bivouac  on  the  stones  till  the 
milking  is  over.  A  signal,  which  they  only  understand,  then  sets 
their  bells  in  a  moment  to  tinkling,  and  the  procession  advances,  at 
its  leisure,  until  the  calling  of  another  halt."94 

This  was  still  the  mode  of  delivering  milk  in  1859.95 

Another  article  of  consumption,  missed  quite  as  much  by  the 
American  traveller  as  cows'  milk,  was  the  butter  made  from  its 
cream.  According  to  Noah  this  was  very  scarce  at  Cadiz  in  1814. 
Foreign  residents  were  at  that  time  using  imported  firkin  butter.95* 
Mrs.  Cushing  writes  about  fifteen  years  later  that  it  is  so  scarce  in 
the  whole  country  that  few  can  afford  to  purchase  it.96  There  was, 
however,  even  before  this  date  a  highly  colored  butter,  called  man- 
teca  de  Flandes.  It  was  advertised  in  one  of  the  daily  papers  at 
Madrid  when  Mackenzie  was  in  Spain  in  1826.97  Wallis  found  it 
very  rancid  in  1847.98  On  his  second  visit,  he  was  very  happily 
impressed  with  an  innovation  in  the  way  of  the  making  and  selling 
of  butter  at  only  a  moderately  high  rate  at  the  royal  dairy  at  Mon- 
cloa,  near  Madrid.  This  same  year,  1849,  salted  butter  at  a  lower 
price  was  obtainable  from  the  Asturias.  Wallis  writes  of  this 
improvement : 

"If  he  [the  traveller]  should  chance  to  have  been  in  Spain  before, 

83  P.  90. 

9*  Spain,  pp.  335,  336. 

95  Pettigrew,  p.  286. 
95a  P.  90. 

96  Vol.  ii,  p.  52. 

97  A  year  in  Spain,  vol.  i,  p.  140. 

98  Glimpses  of  Spain,  pp.  150,  151 ;  cf.  Ford,  p.  153. 


or  to  have  recently  sojourned  in  any  of  the  districts  where  things 
continue  to  be  as  they  were  in  the  beginning,  he  will  rejoice  in  his 
deliverance  from  goat's  milk  and  the  butter  prepared  from  it,  or 
that  insufferable  compound,  manteca  de  Flandres  (Flemmish 
butter).99 

According  to  Mackie  it  was  very  difficult  to  get  good  butter  when 
he  was  in  Spain  in  1851  and  1852.100  March,  however,  found  very 
good  butter  at  Gaucin  in  1853. 101  Channing,  on  the  contrary,  found 
no  butter  on  his  journey  from  Irun  to  Madrid  in  1852.  Neither 
does  he  agree  with  Wallis  as  to  the  quality  of  that  furnished  in  the 
capital.  He  says :  "They  have  in  Madrid  what  they  call  butter,  but 
it  did  not  remind  me  of  the  article."102  Mills  was  unable  to  get 
butter  at  Toledo  in  1865.103 

One  article  of  food  which  travellers  in  general  speak  well  of  in 
Spain  is  the  bread.  Noah  considered  it  inferior  to  none  in  the 
world.  Vassar  found  the  bread  excellent  throughout  Spain  in 
1853.104  The  bread  of  Sevilla  is  especially  praised  by  all.  It  is 
described  as  not  as  spongy  as  that  of  the  United  States  but  of  a 

99  Wallis,  Spain,  p.  335. — According  to  Ford  good  butter  was  obtainable  even 
before  this.    P.  133. 
"OP.  159. 

101  P.  305. 

102  p.  488. 

103  P.  70.  Cf.  Bryant,  p.  89;  Claghorn,  p.  199. — No  American  traveller  is, 
however,  as  severe  in  his  criticism  of  the  butter  in  Spain  as  is  Mrs.  Byrne. 
Speaking  of  the  food  at  San  Sebastian  she  says :  "  As  for  the  manteca  that  was 
altogether  impossible,  as  we  know  of  no  circumstance  which  could  have  induced 
us  even  to  taste  the  tallowy  looking  garlic-scented  compound.  Had  there  been 
any  compulsion  to  'grease  our  bread'  we  should  have  infinitely  preferred  an 
English  candle  end."  Byrne,  vol.  i,  p.  68. — She  was  quite  as  suspicious  of  the 
butter  sold  at  the  casas  de  vacas  in  Madrid  as  she  was  of  their  milk.  Neither 
did  she  risk  taking  that  served  at  the  cafes.  Of  a  breakfast  at  one  of  the 
latter  she  writes:  "We  called  the  mozo,  and  asked  if  we  could  have  cafi-leche 
con  pan;  as  for  manteca,  which  he  offered  us  we  had  long  since  discarded  that 
condiment  from  our  bill  of  fare."    Ibid.,  p.  183;  cf.  ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  91. 

104  P.  328. — Even  the  English  praised  the  bread.  Ford  frequently  speaks  of 
the  good  bread  in  Spain.  Ford,  p.  87,  passim. — Mrs.  Byrne  praises  it  again  and 
again.  In  her  opinion  it  is  one  of  "  the  only  two  articles  of  consumption  that 
the  natives  can  turn  out  credibly."  Byrne,  vol.  i,  pp.  96,  91,  107,  185. — According 
to  her  the  only  redeeming  feature  of  the  Spanish  railroad  buffet,  at  that  time 
not  generally  known  in  Spain  and  most  inferior  to  that  of  other  countries,  was 
the  water  and  the  bread  the  quality  of  which  she  says  is  "  such  as  not  easly 
procured  in  any  other  country."    Vol.  i,  p.  85. 


Food  and  Beverages  51 

closer  grain  and  firm.  It  remains  fresh,  we  are  told,  for  a  week 
and  sometimes  longer.  Even  then  it  is  equal  to  the  best  of  other 
countries.  "  A  loaf  of  it  with  Spanish  chocolate,"  says  Pettigrew, 
"  is  a  breakfast  for  a  king."  Some  call  it  pan  de  Dios.10*  Its  superi- 
ority at  Sevilla  is  frequently  attributed  by  travellers  to  the  pe- 
culiarity of  the  water  at  Alcala  de  los  Panaderos,  the  nearby  town 
where  it  is  made.106  The  sight  of  this  town  of  bakers  was  an 
impressive  one  to  Warren.  He  tells  us  that  at  the  time  of  his  visit 
in  1849  there  were  more  than  two  hundred  mills  in  operation  and 
fifty  ovens  in  constant  use.107 

While  the  majority  of  American  travellers  in  Spain  acquired  a 
taste  for  the  olla,  praised  the  chocolate,  the  bread,  the  trout,  the 
dukes  and  the  fruit,  and  soon  adapted  themselves  to  Spanish  cook- 
ing in  general,  few  failed  at  some  stage  of  their  travels  to  criticize 
it.  In  Scenes  in  Spain  we  read  the  cuisine  at  Madrid  is  detestable 
in  1 83 1,  "a  century  behind  the  elegance  of  Paris."108  Vail  on  his 
journey  from  Irun  to  Madrid  in  1840  found  the  food  very  un- 
pleasant. In  a  letter  dated  Madrid,  December  10,  1840,  he  writes 
to  Van  Buren : 

"  The  traveller  is  allowed  but  six  hours  rest  each  night,  mostly  at 
inns  of  the  most  primitive  character,  and  has  to  fare  on  the  most 
loathsome  compound  of  rancid  oil,  garlic,  horse  beans,  and  tough 
meat  frequently  taken  from  a  goat  dead  of  natural  death  or 
starvation."109 

In  the  forties  the  general  impulse  given  to  the  country  began  to 
show  itself  in  the  cooking.  French  chefs  became  more  numerous 
and  there  was  a  tendency  to  imitate  French  and  English  dishes. 
Wall  is,  on  his  second  visit  to  Spain  found  the  cooking  in  general 
much  improved,  but  most  of  the  restaurants  bad.  The  table  d'hote 
of  the  Vizcaina  at  Madrid  he  says  "has  a  modified  nationality  of 
diet  which  has  carried  comfort  to  the  bosom  of  many  a  wayfarer."110 

105  Cf.  Alhambra,  p.  22 ;  Traces  of  the  Roman  and  Moor,  p.  264 ;  Mackie, 
P.  345;  Ford,  p.  115. 

106  Cf.  Traces  of  the  Roman  and  Moor,  p.  264;  Warren,  p.  133;  Taylor,  p. 
405;  Le  Vert,  vol.  ii,  p.  1;  Pettigrew,  p.  23;  Ford,  p.  115. 

107  P.  133;  cf.  Ford,  p.  115. 
308  P.  181. 

109  The  Van  Buren  papers,  vol.  xli ;  cf.  Vassar,  p.  142. 

110  Spain,  p.  8. 


52  'American  Travellers  in  Spain 

Two  of  the  restaurants  of  the  capital  are  mentioned  by  him  as  good. 
However,  he  considers  Barcelona,  Sevilla,  Cadiz,  and  especially 
Malaga  as  better  provided  than  Madrid.  According  to  Schroe- 
der  the  cuisine  at  Malaga  was  excellent  more  than  five  years  before. 
He  was  evidently  well  impressed  with  Spanish  cooking  for  he 
writes  he  "can  testify  in  favour  of  the  excellence  of  Spanish 
cooks."111  According  to  Warren  Spanish  cooking  is  extremely 
unpleasant  to  the  unaccustomed  palate  but  he  tells  us  not  to  wonder 
that  any  Spanish  dish  should  be  eaten  with  a  relish  by  a  foreigner 
who  has  lived  in  the  country.112  Mackie  on  his  journey  from 
Valencia  to  Madrid  in  1852  found  "no  evidence  of  any' high  cul- 
inary art.  "  But,"  he  adds,  "  who  that  travels  in  the  peninsula  ex- 
pects to  do  anything  more  than  keep  body  and  soul  together?"113 
Taylor  at  about  the  same  date  finds  the  cuisine  at  the  Fonda  de 
Madrid,  Sevilla,  excellent.  At  Carmona  he  was  not  as  fortunate 
and  he  says  that  according  to  reports  the  cooking  is  even  worse  in 
the  interior.114  Maccoun  the  same  year  considers  the  cooking  of 
the  poorest  village  inn  of  France  better  than  that  of  Spain.  "  The 
Spanish  cuisine/'  he  says,  "is  execrable."115  "Maccoun,  however, 
in  his  extremely  adverse  criticism  is  an  exception  among  the  Ameri- 
can travellers.  Mrs.  Le  Vert,  in  Spain  about  three  years  later,  fre- 
quently speaks  of  very  good  meals.116  She  believes  that  all  the 
stories  about  poor  inns  are  false  and  states  that  she  has  found  the 
inns  excellent.117  The  only  place  where  she  was  not  well  and 
plenteously  served  was  at  the  town  of  Igualda  beyond  Monserrat.118 
Mrs.  Allen  who  travelled  in  Spain  in  1864  is  of  quite  a  different 
opinion.  She  expresses  her  satisfaction,  on  her  arrival  at  Bayonne, 
at  being  in  a  French  hotel  "where  French  cooking  restored  their 
flagging  appetites."119     Mrs.  Claghorn  two  years  later  found  the 

111  Vol.  ii,  p.  163. 

112  Pp.  U2,  113;  cf.  Mackie,  pp.  155,  156. 

113  P.  34s ;  cf.  Traces  of  the  Roman  and  Moor,  p.  418. 
***  P.  406. 

115  Knick.  Mag.,  vol.  xli,  pp.  98,  99. 
««  Vol  i,  p.  329;  vol.  ii,  pp.  3,  8,  11,  15,  16,  48,  57- 

117  Vol.  ii,  p.  25 ;  cf.  Channing,  p.  491. 

118  Vol.  ii,  p.  53- 

119  She  says :  "  It  was  pleasant  to  be  again  in  a  French  hotel  where  cleanli- 
ness, a  rare  luxury  in  Spain,  was  the  rule,  and  where  French  cooking  restored 
our  flagging  appetites,  weary  of  the  everlasting  Spanish  oil."     Pp.  504,  5<>5- 


Food  and  Beverages  53 

accommodations  in  Spain  bad  in  general  but  the  cooking  especially 
so.  Unlike  other  travellers  she  has  not  even  a  good  word  to  say 
for  the  bread.  She  writes  in  one  of  her  letters :  "  I  feel  half  starved 
most  of  the  time  and  cannot  even  fall  back  upon  the  bread  and 
butter,  for  they  are  as  bad  as  can  be."120  Mills  who  travelled  in 
Spain  the  year  before,  and  much  more  extensively,  found  the  cuisine, 
in  general,  tolerable.  "  One  can  always  find,"  he  says,  "  excellent 
chocolate,  bread,  salad  and  generally  a  good  cutlet  or  chop,  how- 
ever, wherever  he  goes."122 

Although  the  American  traveller's  criticism  of  Spanish  cooking 
is  rather  sharp  in  some  cases,  it  is  on  the  whole  much  less  poignant 
than  that  of  the  Italian,  French  or  English.122 

120  Pp.  196,  198. 

121  P.  70. 

122  By  far  more  acrid  in  his  opinion  of  Spanish  cooking  than  the  American 
was  the  Italian,  Pecchio,  who  writes  from  Briviesca  in  1821 :  "  In  verita,  avrei 
rinunziato  volontieri  la  notte  scorsa  a  quattro  sensi  almeno.  Una  zuppa  che 
non  avrebbe  allettato  neppure  un  can  levriere  di  ritorno  dalla  caccia,  Costole 
abbrustolite  di  castrato  delicate  come  quella  scom|unica  in  pergamena  che 
Barnabo  Visconti  fece  trangugiare  ai  legati  del  Papa;  vino  fetente  di  pelle  di 
caprone;  quattro  noci  ben  secche,  senza  tovaglie,  senza  cambio  di  piatti,  ecco  la 
cena  che  ci  fu  imbandita  nell'  osteria  del  mastro  di  posta  di.  .  .  ."  Pecchio, 
p.  5- — The  execrable  cuisine  was  one  thing  for  which  the  French  could  not 
forgive  their  neighbors  across  the  Pyrenees.  Had  they  ventured  into  unfre- 
quented sections,  as  did  the  Americans,  instead  of  following  the  beaten  track 
it  is  difficult  to  conjecture  what  they  might  have  said.  We  read  in  he  voyage 
en  Espagne :  "  La  cuisine  de  l'Espagne,  et  les  hotelleries,  n'ont  pas  ete  sen- 
siblement  ameliorees  depuis  don  Quichotte;  les  peintures  d'omelettes  emplumees, 
de  merluches  coriaces,  d'huile  ranee  et  de  pois  chiches  pouvant  servir  de  balles 
pour  les  fusils  sont  encore  de  la  plus  exacte  verite;  mais,  par  exemple,  je  ne 
sais  pas  ou  Ton  trouverait  aujourd'hui  les  belles  poulardes  et  les  oies  mon- 
strueuses  des  noces  de  Gamache."  Gautier,  pp.  138,  139. — Dumas  found  the  food 
even  worse  than  that  of  Italy.  "  En  Italie,"  he  says,  "  ou  Ton  mange  mal,  les 
bons  restaurateurs  sont  francais;  en  Espagne,  ou  l'on  ne  mange  pas  du  tout,  les 
bons  restaurateurs  sont  italiens."  Dumas,  vol.  i,  p.  70. — The  English  had  hardly 
a  better  opinion  of  Spanish  cooking  than  did  the  French  and  Italians.  According 
to  Ford  "but  few  things  are  ever  done  in  Spain  in  real  style,  which  implies 
forethought  and  expense;  everything  is  a  make-shift."  Culinary  conditions  he 
thinks  quite  as  bad  as  in  the  East.  "  Spain,  as  the  East,  is  not  to  be  enjoyed 
by  the  over-fastidious  in  the  fleshy  comforts;  there,  those  who  over  analyse, 
who  peep  too  much  behind  the  culinary  or  domestic  curtains,  must  not  expect 
to  pass  a  tranquil  existence."  Ford,  pp.  107,  168. — Ford  frequently  ridicules 
the  cooking.  Roasting,  a  requisite  in  every  English  cuisine,  he  found  almost 
unknown  in  Spain. — Mrs.   Byrne,  although   in   Spain  only  a  year  after  Mills 


54  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

According  to  American  travellers,  the  accommodations,  then, 
furnished  by  the  lonely  venta  and  the  village  inn,  were  on  the 
whole  meagre  until  well  toward  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury and  even  until  much  later  off  the  main  routes  of  travel.  The 
fondas,  too,  although  they  improved  greatly  in  the  larger  cities 
during  the  general  awakening  following  the  death  of  Ferdinand 
VII,  were  far  from  furnishing  those  comforts  found  in  other  coun- 
tries where  there  was  more  travel.123 

has  quite  a  different  opinion  from  him  as  to  the  food.  She  not  only  found  it 
poor  but  sometimes  extremely  scanty.  Like  her  fellow-countrymen  and  the 
French  she  has  much  to  say  about  the  cuisine.  Her  descriptions  of  the 
"  skeletons  compressed  into  tightly  strained  parchment  skins  served  for  chicken  " 
and  "  the  tallowy  butter "  remind  one  of  some  in  Don  Quijote,  and  in  Le 
Voyage  en  Espagne.  Like  other  English  travellers — and  contrary  to  the  cus- 
tom of  American  travellers — she  constantly  compares  with  the  English.  The 
famous  Spanish  hams  she  does  not  find  as  appetising  as  "a  respectable  English 
ham,"  and  the  wine  is  not  as  good  as  that  of  England.  Indeed  for  her  "  the 
Spanish  cuisine  is  such  a  ticklish  affair  that  it  would  be  hard  for  an  Englishman 
to  be  compelled  to  feed  at  any  given  place  in  Spain."  Byrne,  vol.  i,  pp.  91,  172. 
— Again  she  writes  of  the  Madrid  Foundling :  "  The  food  is  such  as  the  coun- 
try affords,  and  such  as  the  habits  of  the  people  have  rendered  admissable  but 
it  would  not  be  palatable  to  English  taste."    Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  90. 

123  In  the  writings  of  Spaniards  of  that  day,  we  find  ample  testimony  as  to 
these  conditions.  Larra  writes  of  the  posadas  of  Estremadura:  "En  segundo 
lugar  esas  posadas,  fieles  a  nuestras  antiguas  tradiciones,  son  por  el  estilo  de  la 
que  nos  pinta  Moratin  en  una  de  sus  comedias ;  todas  las  de  la  carrera  rivalizan 
en  miseria  y  desagrado,  excepto  la  de  Navalcarnero,  que  es  peor  y  campa  sola 
sin  emulos  ni  rivales  por  su  rara  originalidad  y  su  desmantelamiento ;  entiendase 
que  hablo  solo  de  la  que  pertenece  a  la  empresa  de  los  mensajerias — habra  otras 
mejores  tal  vez;  no  es  dificil."     Larra,  p.  450. 

The  bad  inn  is  frequently  cited  by  Breton  de  los  Herreros.  In  the  comedy, 
A  Madrid  no  vuelvo,  Don  Baltasar  finding  the  guest  has  not  gotten  up  looks  at 
his  watch  and  says : 

"Las  siete.    Estos  cortesanos 

Son  lo  mismo  que  las  aves 

Nocturnas.    Eh,  no  me  admiro 

Despues  de  un  molesto  viaje 

Por  caminos  tan  perversos 

Y  posadas  tan  fatales.  .  .  ." 
Manuel  Breton  de  los  Herreros,  Obras  escogidas,  Paris,  1862,  vol.  i. 
In  Una  noche  en  Burgos  Don  Celed  replies  to  his  daughter  who  says  that 
Don  Luis,  whom  he  wishes  to  entertain,  may  prefer  his  liberty  at  the  inn: 

Pues  mas  completa 
la  tendra  alii  que  en  un  mal 
parador. 
Manuel  Breton  de  los  Herreros,  Una  noche  en  Burgos, 

Madrid,  1843,  p.  32. 


Food  and  Beverages  55 

Because  of  these  conditions,  during  the  early  part  of  the  period 
we  are  studying,  it  was  the  custom,  in  places  where  there  were  no 
good  inns,  to  entertain  travellers  of  the  upper  classes  in  the  homes. 
William  Carmichael  writes  to  Short  in  1792  that  he  can  procure 
him  letters  of  introduction  to  the  principal  persons  in  the  different 
cities  of  Spain  through  which  he  may  pass.124  Monroe  found  the 
inns  so  bad  at  I  run  in  1804  that  he  gladly  accepted  an  invitation  to 
spend  the  night  at  the  home  of  one  of  the  foreign  ministers.  Here 
he  found  "some  others  of  the  best  society  of  the  Travellers  who 
were  detained  by  the  cordon."125  Ticknor  was  entertained  by  the 
higher  clergy  and  others  in  18 18.  His  reception  by  the  postmaster 
of  Madrilejos  particularly  impressed  him.  Of  this  circumstance 
he  writes : 

"  My  license  to  post  was  endorsed  with  a  particular  order  from  the 
Ministry,  that  the  postmasters  should  receive  me  with  attention, 
and  give  me  any  assistance  I  might  need.  The  one  at  Madrilejos 
showed,  from  the  moment  I  entered  his  house,  a  kind  of  dignified 
obedience  to  his  order,  which  struck  me."128 

Irving  in  speaking  of  his  visit  to  Moguer  in  1828  says:  "Few 
people  travel  for  pleasure  or  curiosity  in  these  out-of-the-way  parts 
of  Spain,  and  those  of  any  note  are  generally  received  into  private 
houses."127 

When  he  presented  his  letter  of  introduction  at  the  house  of 
one  of  the  descendants  of  the  Pinzons,  who  sailed  with  Columbus, 

124  He  writes  from  Madrid  September  9,  1792 :  "  As  I  am  generally  known 
here,  I  can  procure  you  letters  of  introduction  to  the  principal  persons  in  the 
different  cities  thro'  which  you  may  pass."  The  papers  of  William  Short, 
Manuscript  Division,  L.  C,  vol.  xxi. 

125  Diary. — Townsend  was  favorably  impressed  by  his  hospitable  reception 
at  the  homes  of  Spaniards  during  his  travels  in  Spain  in  1786  and  1787.  Now 
he  is  received  by  a  family  whose  °  style  of  living  resembles  the  old  British 
hospitality,"  now  by  the  Archbishop  at  Sevilla  who  is  "  well  lodged  and  keeps  a 
hospitable  table,"  now  by  the  Count  of  Afalto,  governor  of  Barcelona  and 
captain  general  of  the  province.  He  speaks  especially  of  his  entertainment  by 
the  upper  clergy  of  whom  he  has  a  high  opinion.  In  his  directions  to  those  who 
expect  to  travel  in  Spain,  he  mentions  the  necessity  of  letters  of  introduction 
to  the  principal  families  in  the  places  to  be  visited.  Vol.  ii,  pp.  43,  49,  288,  289; 
vol.  iii,  pp.  319,  321. 

126  Ticknor,  Life,  vol.  i,  p.  222. 

127  Works,  vol.  vii,  p.  536. 


56  American  Travellers  in  Spain 

he  was  immediately  invited  to  give  up  his  room  at  the  inn  for  one 
in  their  home.  Although  the  inn  was  one  of  the  primitive  kind 
already  described,  ill  provided  with  the  necessary  comforts,  Irving 
did  not  feel  it  would  be  right  for  him  to  change,  as  the  kind  inn- 
keeper had  taken  some  trouble  for  his  accommodation.  However, 
he  took  his  meals  with  the  Pinzons  during  his  sojourn  in  the  place, 
and  was  deeply  impressed  by  their  kindness.128 

128  Irving,  Works,  vol.  vii,  p.  53& — Widdrington  is  told  at  Almaden :  "  It 
is  impossible  that  you  can  stop  at  the  posada,  which  is  only  fit  for  arrieros ;  the 
governor  having  only  just  been  appointed  is  a  bachelor,  and  has  but  a  limited 
number  of  beds  which  are  now  occupied,  otherwise  he  would  have  received  you 
at  his  house."  Spain  and  the  Spaniards  in  1843,  vol.  i,  p.  162;  cf.  ibid.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  16,  106. — Not  infrequently  did  the  village  priest  entertain  the  stranger. 
Ford  says :  "  It  has  more  than  once  befallen  us  in  the  rude  ventas  of  the 
Salamanca  district,  that  the  silver-haired  cura,  whose  living  barely  furnished 
the  means  whereby  to  live,  on  hearing  the  simple  fact  that  an  Englishman  was 
arrived,  has  come  down  to  offer  his  house  and  fare."  Ford,  p.  180. — Borrow  in 
spite  of  his  persistency  in  thrusting  his  bibles  on  the  community  was  invited  by 
an  old  priest  whom  he  met  at  the  Irish  college  in  Salamanca  to  pay  him  a  visit 
on  passing  through  his  village.  Borrow,  vol.  i,  pp.  281,  308;  cf.  ibid.,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  40,  79,  89. — That  the  traveller  was  frequently  entertained  in  private  homes 
is  corroborated  in  the  Spanish  writings  of  that  day.  The  hospedador  de 
provincia  according  to  Rivas  was  a  Spanish  type  which  had  not  changed  in  the 
slightest  during  the  general  overthrow  following  the  death  of  Ferdinand  VII. 
"  1  Quien  podra  imaginar  que  el  hombre  acomodado,  que  vive  en  una  ciudad  de 
provincia,  6  en  un  pueblo  de  alguna  consideration,  y  que  se  complace  en  alojar 
y  obsequiar  en  su  casa  a  los  transeuntes  que  le  van  recomendados,  6  con  quienes 
tiene  relaciones,  es  un  tipo  de  la  soeiedad  espanola,  y  un  tipo  que  apenas  ha 
padecido  la  mas  ligera  alteration  en  el  trastorno  general,  que  no  ha  dejado 
titere  con  cabeza?  Pues,  si,  pio  lector;  ese  benevolo  personaje  que  se  ejercita 
en  practicar  la  recomendable  virtud  de  la  hospitalidad,  y  a  quien  llamaremos  el 
Hospedador  de  Provincia,  es  una  planta  indigena  de  nuestro  suelo,  que  se  con- 
serva  inalterable.  Los  Espaholes  pintados  por  si  mismos,  vol.  i,  p.  384. — The 
hospedador  de  provincia,  he  tells  us,  is  known  to  all  Spaniards  and  to  all  for- 
eigners who  have  travelled  in  Spain.  Both  the  travellers  in  the  coche  de 
colleras  or  those  in  the  post  chaise  of  forty  years  before  the  travellers  of  his 
day,  in  diligence,  galera,  or  on  horseback,  all  he  contends  have  experienced  this 
hospitality.  P.  385. — Larra  praises  particularly  the  hospitality  of  Badajoz :  "  La 
amabilidad  sin  embargo  y  el  trato  fino  de  las  personas  y  familias  principales  de 
Badajoz  compensan  con  usura  las  desventajas  del  pueblo,  y  si  bien  carece  de 
atractivos  para  detener  mucho  tiempo  en  su  seno  al  viajero,  al  mismo  tiempo  le 
es  dificil  a  este  separarse  de  el  sin  un  profundo  sentimiento  de  gratitud  por 
poco  que  haya  conocido  personas  de  Badajoz  y  que  haya  tenido  ocasion  de 
recibir  sus  obsequios  y  de  ser  objeto  de  sus  atracciones."  P.  450. — The 
comedies  of  that  day  also  mention  the  fact  that  the  traveller  was  entertained  in 
private  houses.    Breton  de  los  Herreros  gives  a  good  picture  of  this  hospitality 


Food  and  Beverages  57 

These  and  other  examples  of  hospitality  will  be  considered  more 
in  detail  in  the  chapter  entitled,  "  The  People.'' 

in  Una  Noche  en  Burgos.    One  of  the  chief  characters,  Don  Celed,  replies  to 
the  posadera  who  complains  that  he  takes  away  her  guests: 

"  Muger,  deja  que  despunte 
en  mi  amigable  recinto 
este  benefico  instinto 
de  hospedar  al  transeunte." 
The  doors  of  Don  Celed's  house  are  always  open  wide  to  the  stranger  or  to 
friends.    He  replied  to  Don  Luis  who  does  not  wish  to  trouble  him: 

"  i  Quia ! 
Obsequiar  al  forastero, 
Sea  Pedro,  6  sea  Juan 
es  mi  delicia;  y  al  hi  jo 
de  un  amigo  tan  cordial 
cuando  a  nadie  se  la  cierro, 
<»no  he  de  abrir  de  par  en  par 
mi  puerta?" 

P.  32;  cf.  ibid.,  p.  93. 


VITA 

C.  Evangeline  Farnham  was  born  in  Oldtown,  Maine.  Her 
education  was  received  at  public  and  private  schools  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  private  school  in  Paris,  1900-1901 ;  private  school  in  Madrid, 
1 901 ;  University  of  Paris  and  International  Guild,  Paris,  1904- 
1905;  France,  summer,  1909;  summer  course,  University  of 
Grenoble,  France,  19 13 ;  summer  course,  Junta  para  Ampliation  de 
Estudios,  Madrid,  1920;  Columbia  University,  1911-1921  (B.S. 
with  French  diploma,  1916 ;  A.  M.,  191 7) .  She  has  published,  prior 
to  this  dissertation  a  study  entitled  "Devices  for  teaching  oral 
French,"  Modern  Language  Journal,  February,  1918.  In  1905-1906 
she  was  instructor  in  French  at  Mary  Institute,  Washington  Uni- 
versity, St.  Louis;  from  1907  to  1909,  supervisor  of  French  in  the 
public  schools  of  New  Bedford,  Massachusetts;  from  January, 
191 1,  to  July,  1916,  instructor  in  French  at  the  High  School  in 
Kearny,  New  Jersey.  During  the  years  19 18-1920  she  was  con- 
nected with  Barnard  College,  the  first  year  as  lecturer  in  Romance 
Languages  and  Literatures;  and  the  second  as  instructor  in 
Spanish.  Since  191 9  she  has  been  instructor  in  Spanish  in  Ex- 
tension courses  at  Columbia  University. 


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